Book description
The first murder seemed senseless. The second death a tragic
accident. And the killer...a total mystery to Chief of Police James
Morgan. Chief Morgan's job had been, up to now, a cinchÂ-his principal
occupation being to sexually service the dissatisfied wives of the
town's wealthiest citizens.
The troubled town is Bensington, a bedroom suburb of Boston, where
respectable natives live in old Victorians, rich newcomers in mock
mansions, and the poor in wood-heaped frame houses. Just beneath
Bensington's sedate surface are some very off-centered residents whose
quirky cravings and guilts tend to be overlooked, or neatly concealed.
Then a brutal double murder blows everyone's deep, dark secrets into
the open air, and for once rich and poor alike are caught up in the
same net of passion and violence.
James Morgan, Bensington born and bred, is a lean and handsome
widower whose love for his dead wife spurs an unending series of
sexual conquests, and whose warm compassion wars with the icy
imperatives of his profession. Although he is expected to solve the
mysterious murders and put the town back together, local coffee-shop
critics question his competence, even as they relish the rumors of his
trysts. The women who sleep with MorganÂ-for reasons ranging from
boredom to desperate lonelinessÂ-are included in his investigation, as
is a rich man on the brink of ruin, and a policeman nursing a hidden
hate, and a degenerate family consisting of a brutal father and two
very different sonsÂ-one retarded, the other frighteningly gifted. And
complicating it all is Morgan's newest conquest, the daughter of the
victims, who herself may be a target.
Filled with insight and irony, this electrifying thriller blends
roller-coaster action with the sensitive probing of men and women
driven by private demons of love and hate, need and desire. Edgar
nominee Andrew Coburn masterfully splices psychological suspense with
police procedure as he turns his keen eye on small-town America and
the secrets it keeps.
