Incinerator: A Simeon Grist Mystery - Softcover

Hallinan, Timothy

3.83

229 ratings by Goodreads

9780380713707: Incinerator: A Simeon Grist Mystery

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380713705 ISBN 13: 9780380713707

Publisher: Avon Books, 1993

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When a wealthy man is set ablaze by the "incinerator"--a deranged pyromaniac who is stalking the homeless of L.A.--professor-turned-private investigator Simeon Grist is determined to catch the killer. Reprint.

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From Kirkus Reviews:

The fourth Simeon Grist p.i. mystery (Skin Deep, etc.), which would be little more than routine were it not for the esoteric fire references bandied about by the torcher of Skid Row derelicts who's known to the police as ``the Crisper'' (though he himself prefers the name ``Incinerator''). Simeon enters into the serial murders when one of the victims turns out to be a lost, disoriented millionaire suffering from Alzheimer's, and when his daughter announces to the press that she's hired Grist to find out who killed him. The trail leads to the library and to a tall thin, blond man with a clubfoot who drives a Mazda and wears a black rubber raincoat. And, as it happens, was in love with Grist's sometime lover Eleanor Chan at college, which explains why the Incinerator keeps taunting Simeon with clue-filled notes. Eventually the two meet up at L.A.'s Renaissance Pleasure Faire, where the Haunted House and the Toy Railroad hold more than their share of corpses--and matches. Shallow psychoanalyzing and sketchy plotting, but those fire references will tweak the synapses. Otherwise: just one more serial killer. -- Copyright �1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Library Journal:

After the serial murderer who immolates skid-row bums torches her father--an Alzheimer's sufferer who disappeared from Chicago--ultra-rich Annabelle Winston hires LA investigator Simeon Grist ( The Four Last Things , LJ 5/1/89) to track down the villain. When she splashes the story across the front page of the Sunday paper, the "Incinerator" contacts Grist, the police realize they must act, and Grist dubiously coordinates a plan to entrap the ubiquitous villain. Quite different from Fyfield in style and setting, but just as vital and full of conflict. Highly recommended.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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