Dead Aim

Lt. Hastings #3

by Collin Wilcox

All murder victims are equal, according to Lt. Frank Hastings. But the higher-ups tell him to put everything on the back burner to find out who killed a young woman in Pacific Heights, San Francisco's gold coast. She and her gigolo were found nude, dead and probably tortured.

Hastings agonizes over his commitment to another case. Two nights earlier, someone mugged and killed a housewife, which destroyed a family. Duty and politics force him to work around the clock on both cases, chasing leads in elegant drawing rooms and dark, dank alleyways. In a few violent hours, he brings both killers to bay. Can he bring them in without bloodshed... principally his own?

"Involving...boils with life." (Ross MacDonald)

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Aka Carter Wick

Collin Wilcox was an American mystery writer.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, his first book was The Black Door (1967), featuring a sleuth possessing extrasensory perception. His major series of novels was about Lieutenant Frank Hastings of the San Francisco Police Department. Titles in the Hastings series included Hire a Hangman, Dead Aim, Hiding Place, Long Way Down and Stalking Horse. Two of his last books, Full Circle and Find Her a Grave, featured a new hero-sleuth, Alan Bernhardt, an eccentric theater director. Wilcox also published under the pseudonym "Carter Wick".

Wilcox's most famous series-detective was the television character Sam McCloud, a New Mexico deputy solving New York crime. The "urban cowboy" was played by Dennis Weaver in the 1970-1977 TV series McCloud. Wilcox wrote three novelizations based on scripts from the series: McCloud (1973), The New Mexican Connection (1974), and The Park Avenue Executioner (1975).

Reviews

[Yves Lefevre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. A very good mixture of sleuthing and action scenes.
Interesting narrator (and protagonist).