Detective Lacey Lockington always gets the job done, but making the omelets of solved cases usually involves breaking a lot of eggs. So when Lacey gets suspended after tabloid columnist Stella Starbright names him as a “kill-crazy cop,” he has to find new work as a private investigator. It’s a step down, for sure, and one of his first cases is an unlikely one: former “Stella Starbrights” are turning up dead on the streets of Chicago, and the current one, the reputation ruiner herself, turns to an unlikely source for protection.
Going against his gut, Lacey agrees to keep tabs on Stella to keep her from sharing the grisly fate of her former namesakes. In the midst of all the madness, Lacey hunts the real killer, someone looking to silence gossip columnists for good. But can Lacey crack the case before another victim makes a different section of the newspapers?
Sex…violence…booze! This deadly mix will keep you on the edge of your seat in Ross Spencer’s jaded-but-jaunty tale about a hardened cop with nothing but his reputation to lose.
Ross H. Spencer tries putting more than one sentence together. The story gets longer but not better. He remarks: "the human mind {is} a labyrinth with as many dead ends as thruways", and this sums it well. There IS a "mystery" in here but it is overwhelmed by bars, women, and women in bars.
His earlier books are at least quicker reads.
FYI: the meaning of the title does not come up until 91% of the way through. A better title appears near 96% but nobody should have to read this much mind-lint.