Lacy Lockington is “one thoroughly bewildered six-foot-one, 205-pound, 48-year-old ex-police detective with the damnedest case of snakebite he’d ever heard of.” He cruises the lower depths of Chicago in his weathered Pontiac, seeking some comfort from healthy dollops of Martell’s and from Edna Garson, the part-time cashier at Easheski’s Liquor Emporium.
Lockington is entitled to a mild case of paranoia: he’s still trying to make sense of the knifing-murder of his true girlfriend, Julie Masters, when in the space of about a week, he tangles with four viscious miscreants and shoots them dead¯pretty much in self defense. Stella Starbright, hard-hitting columnist for the Morning Sentinel, takes vigorous exception to Lockington’s action¯in bold print.
Then she walks into his life in person.
“She was five-six or so, dark-haired, dark-eyed, and cuter than a termite’s night shirt...” Like that.
Erika Elwood, nom de plume, Stella Starbright.
Despite taking him to task, she presents the possibility of pleasant distraction for Lockington¯until some of the other ladies who have written the column start turning up dead, and Lockington is quickly considered numero uno suspect...
On the coattails of his heralded Death Wore Gloves, Ross Spencer has produced another combination of sardonic wit and edge-of-the-seat suspense that will leave his readers calling for more.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Ross H. Spencer was born in Hughart, West Virginia and raised in Youngstown, Ohio. During World War II, he served with the 37th Infantry Division on New Georgia, on Bougainville, and in the Philippines. Following the war, he moved to Chicago to be near the Chicago Cubs, the ball club of his choice since 1932. He served again, this time with the Air Force during the Korean Emergency or whatever it was.Ross H. Spencer was the father of three wonderful daughters and the proud husband of Shirley, the most beautiful lady on earth. In 1987, he returned to Youngstown, Ohio, where he spent the remaining 11 years of his life.
Spencer's latest is lumpy, burdened by supposedly funny gibes at fat ladies, and interminable. The central figure, Lacy Lockington, is a cop suspended from the force in Chicago when columnist "Stella Starbright" dubs him a kill-crazy officer, more dangerous than the crooks he shoots. Approached by Duke Denny, a private detective, Lockington agrees to replace Moose Katzenbach, who is quitting Denny's agency. Thus the off-duty policeman meets Stella S., his nemesis, aka Erika Elwood. Begging his pardon and his help, Elwood says she is marked for murder by the people who have killed her predecessors on the newspaper. Lockington becomes her bodyguard and bed partner. She is but one of many women eager for sex with the putative hero, whose libido is equaled only by his thirst for booze. Given the man's usual state, it is remarkable that he can follow the circuitous path of this sleazy mystery by the author of Death Wore Gloves.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
(No Available Copies)
Search Books: Create a WantCan't find the book you're looking for? We'll keep searching for you. If one of our booksellers adds it to AbeBooks, we'll let you know!
Create a Want