Hngh Storms is a Buffalo lawyer with an

ordinary practice: some corporate work, ocea-

sional criminal stuff, lots of insurance. His wife

ran off years ago with another man; their sort

Miehacl--a good boy but a troubled one who ran

with a rough crowd--lived with Hugh until mov-

ing to New York City. From there he wrote letters

about kicking drugs, taking acting lessons,

getting his life together--until the day he was

murdered in his apartment upstairs from a used-

books store in Greenwich Village.

When two months go by with no progress

in the case, Storms comes to New York himself

to investigate. It isn t long before he discovers

his son s letters were lies: far from leaving the

drug scene, Michael was pushing deeper and

deeper into it. Storms methodically follows his

son s trail into his son s (and the city s) nether-

world, tracks down everyone Michael knew, until

he has narrowed the ease to a couple of suspects.

He lays a trap but--in a chilling, heartbreaking

ending--learns why neither he nor anyone else

can bring the murderer to justice.

This is a suspenseful and totally absorbing

novel, one that--like the work of George V.

Higgins or William Kennedy--displays a stun-

ning command of voice and mood and an extraor-

dinary gift of portraying a teeming cityscape.