The Heroin Factor - Hardcover

McEachin, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 096566614X ISBN 13: 9780965666145

Publisher: Rharl Pub Group, 1999

Synopsis

A black Los Angeles police detective fights his two biggest problems himself and his addiction.

About this title

About the Author

McEachin, James -- actor/author. Benjamin Franklin Award finalist for best fiction/drama, Farewell to the Mockingbirds. Appeared in over 150 film and TV productions, starred in his own TV series, Tenafly, in early 70's. A member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, has worked with John Wayne, Bette Davis, Clint Eastwood, Henry Fonda, Jack Webb, to name a few. Coming out of retirement to work on Steven Bochco's new mid-season TV series, City of Angels.

From Publishers Weekly

Though it starts off with a couple of hoary old clich?s, McEachin's offbeat but never off-kilter thriller eschews conventional action-suspense resolutions. There's a "no love lost" subplot between cranky L.A. narcotics lieutenant Wyatt McKnight and equally crusty Chief Herman Ault, who assigns McKnight to investigate the murder of fellow officer Verneau LeCoultre, a drug addict who's found shot to death after apparently being mauled by a dog. A "new partner" subplot blooms when Ault teams McKnight with a German policeman visiting L.A. to observe U.S. police methods. The two detectives quickly discover that LeCoultre's girlfriend, Angie, worked as a distributor for eccentric Leslie Van Horn, a British woman who suffers from a psychotic disorder and makes pure heroin from poppies grown on her own farm to distribute to the homeless. While locating Van Horn is relatively easy, the arrest is anything but. There are disastrous complications for McKnight's search, including violent bouts with a madwoman, a near-fatal gunshot wound, amnesia and a year of medical leave for recuperation before McKnight can track Van Horn to Bath, England. There he meets her deranged and dangerous family, and the showdown is a grisly one. McEachin's (Farewell to the Mockingbirds) third novel is not so much a mystery-thriller as an unusual, nearly unresolvable case history. As a result, the climax hinges not on the apprehension of a killer, but a search for answers, and ultimately a mutual redemption between cop and criminal, who share more than just a crime between them. It's not the story one might expect from the first few pages, but McEachin's strange twists make it a palpable, addictive one. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Rharl Pub Group
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 096566614X
• ISBN 13: 9780965666145
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 340