From Publishers Weekly
A steaming witch's brew of a tale about a serial killer bent on revenge against the entire New York City police force, Caunitz's ( One Police Plaza ) latest blockbuster recipe combines his lifetime of police work with a hint of Hollywood, a helping of women's rights, a bit of bombing, a touch of Transylvania and a pinch of S & M. After a second young black woman is found with her throat ripped out, the NYPD appoints rogue-male Lieutenant John Vinda to head up a task force. The subsequent murder of a white Sutton Place heiress belies a racial motive and prompts protests by angry women's groups, leading to the addition of two female detectives to the task force. The discovery of a fourth body by a famous movie star in the dressing room of a ritzy Fifth Avenue salon turns the case into a media circus. The lady cops pull off some outrageous interrogation techniques amid right-on characterizations of New York types. Never mind that the plot is a little contrived or that the cops have apparently gone through sensitivity training or that the ending may be unintentionally humorous--this book is great entertainment. 100,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo; Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
NYPD procedural veteran Caunitz (Black Sand, Suspects, One Police Plaza) coasts on his bestselling reputation in this pumped-up tale pitting still another department stalwart against an unusually preposterous psycho. In this corner, then: recent widower (melanoma) Lt. John Vinda, recalled from exile in Missing Persons to put himself on the line by solving a series of slashings of young women before the media realizes they're connected and jumps all over the case; and a chosen squad of basically interchangeable mavericks who don't mind bending a few rules. (After the confession Vinda extorts from a bomb supplier turns out to be bogus, two women from the squad go on their own to extort a second, accurate, confession.) And in this corner--his identity doesn't stay secret for long--Michael Worthington, stuntman-turned- actor, also in mourning for his wife, who left the convent to marry him but was killed by a stray police bullet soon after the wedding. As a killer, Worthington clearly has it in for the police, but that doesn't prevent the entire squad from obligingly gathering at his behest at One Police Plaza so that he can blow them all up--if only Vinda doesn't put two and two together in time. The hang-up that dictates the pattern of Worthington's revenge is deliciously absurd just by itself but, better still, it allows Vinda, after a series of feints padded out by exotic sex (S/M, masturbation, lesbianism, and coitus interruptus--the one unremarkable sexual encounter naturally takes place offstage), to exorcize his grief in a sublimely silly sequel to the bombing. Exciting as ever--but disappointingly routine under the trappings. And the killer is treated with a surprising lack of conviction. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
