NYPD detective Ben Tolliver investigates a series of seemingly motiveless murders
A beautiful woman strides into a jewelry store and asks to try on the finest diamond they have. After admiring it in the mirror, she draws a revolver and kills everyone in the shop, screaming, “Horrible! Vile! Hideous! Filthy!” As the smoke clears, she looks at the security camera, puts the pistol in her mouth, and pulls the trigger.
Who was this woman? Why did she kill, and why did she turn the gun on herself? The case falls to Detective Ben Tolliver, a homicide cop who is not afraid of asking tough questions. The killer was the daughter of a major political player who will do whatever it takes to cover up his child’s troubled past. At the root of the conspiracy is a disturbed doctor whose experiments go far beyond ethical science, and who has the power to destroy Tolliver’s mind, body, and soul.
James Neal Harvey spent fifteen years in the advertising business before selling his company and devoting himself to writing. He made his hardcover debut in 1990 with By Reason of Insanity, which introduced NYPD detective Ben Tolliver.
Harvey followed Tolliver through four more novels, including Painted Ladies, Mental Case, and the concluding thriller, Dead Game. In 2011, Harvey published the nonfiction Sharks of the Air, a detailed history of the development of the first jet fighter, and in 2014, he returned to thrillers with The Big Hit, a mystery about an assassin.