From Publishers Weekly
Philosophical freethinker and a tough guy with principles, Chicago cabbie Cooper MacLeish suffers seriously reduced charisma in his third appearance, following A Long Cold Fall. Part of the problem is a predictable plot, as Coop is called upon to provide some muscle for a journalist pal pursuing a story. Melvin Moreland has been anonymously but pointedly--he finds his cat skewered to the kitchen wall--warned not to meet with a man offering information; he and Coop discover the would-be informant's body in a Chicago sanitation garage, where assorted stolen vehicles are stored. Next to die is the victim's brother. MacLeish considers returning belatedly to college and finding a new job while helping Moreland uncover some unsurprisingly shady dealings between city politicos and union higher-ups. Reaves infuses little pizzazz into this tale, with its resolution turning on missing tapes, mayoral candidates and a cool, patrician beauty with steely determination; the intriguingly oddball Coop has lost much of his earlier appeal and credibility.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Should Chicago reporter Melvin Moreland pursue a tip from shady informant Vance Oyler about a story that'll ``sink some heavy cruisers''? Better not, says an anonymous caller directing Mel's attention to his dead cat. But Mel won't give up, even after Vance and his brother John go the way of the cat; reluctantly joined by his cabbie friend Cooper MacLeish (A Long Cold Fall, Fear Will Do It), he hooks up a tape cassette missing from John Oyler's to a crowded field of big shots--including powerbroker Regis Swanson, zoning lawyer King Van Houten, and mayoral candidate Wilson Throop. But when rival TV reporter Christine Pappadikas jumps on the story, the cops don't even want to talk to Mel, except to ask him why he and Coop discovered both bodies. Chicago politics at its dirtiest. With so many sleazeballs running around loose, you'll be positively relieved by the final bloody holocaust. --
Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
