thor of the Easy Rawlins series, deemed "one of America's best mystery writers" (The New York Times Book Review), comes a tale about a murdered man who does not want to go to heaven or hell--he'd rather have his old life in Harlem.

The police don't show up on Easy's doorstep until the third girl dies. It's Los Angeles, 1956 and it takes more than a murdered black girl before the cops get interested. Now they need Easy. The LAPD need help to find the serial killer who's going around murdering young, African American strippers. They only show up when the killer murders a white girl.

But Easy turns them down. As he says: "I was worth a precinct full of detectives when the cops needed the word in the ghetto." He's married now, a father, and his detective days are over. When the white college coed dies, the cops make it clear that if Easy doesn't help his best friend is headed for jail. So Easy is back, walking the midnight streets of Watts and the darker twisted avenues of a cunning killer's mind, in the most explosive Easy Rawlins mystery yet.