A pious killer stalks the Tenderloin, hunting streetwalkers in the name of the Lord After years of turning tricks and shooting junk, Amy has reached the end of the line. Heroin has wrecked her body, and her pimp is contemplating cutting her loose when she takes a client to the Bayside Hotel. The john asks her to turn around and undress, and as she slips out of her clothes for the thousandth time, he places his hands around her neck and starts to squeeze....

Hastings investigates a murder among a set of wealthy adulterers By the time Haney and the woman get to her apartment, they are so drunk they can hardly get through the door. They undress and begin to fool around, but before they make it to the bedroom, they have an argument. Haney is about to leave when the woman starts to laugh at him. He spins around and slugs her as hard as he can. His head is beginning to clear by the time he makes it home. He's...

A pair of murders leaves Hastings torn between following his orders and listening to his gut After nearly a decade as a San Francisco cop, Frank Hastings is becoming something of a stranger to kindness. He feels perfectly at home in the Draper household-a rundown Victorian not far from the streets on which he grew up-where a social worker has been beaten to death by a man hiding in the bushes. The crime looks like a mugging, but something in the husband's...

Searching for a missing society matron, Hastings finds danger amid the upper crust In a glamorous part of San Francisco, a maid has been strangled to death. Frank Hastings stands over the body, knowing it will be a long day. But before finishing with the crime scene, he gets another call-an officer has been shot, and Hastings must lead the tactical squad. By lunchtime, the boy who shot the officer is dead, and Hastings is hungry for an easy assignment....

A senator's life is in danger-and anyone in San Francisco could be a killer Senate majority leader Donald Ryan is a kingmaker, with the power to make or break presidencies, and the ability to reshape the country with a flick of his pen. He is also a very sick man, recovering from a heart attack that must be kept secret at all costs. But when a series of death threats jeopardizes his planned return to public life, the FBI calls in San Francisco police...

A crime reporter with ESP tackles a double homicide In a San Francisco apartment building, a young woman is found strangled beside a piano player with a broken neck. He's a nobody-a dreamer with little talent and no future-but she is Roberta Grinnel, daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the Bay Area. Stephen Drake, crime reporter for the Sentinel, feels nothing when he looks at their corpses, and this is a troubling fact. For Drake is a psychic,...

After a concert, a goddess of rock is shot dead backstage It's the finest performance of Rebecca Carlton's career. The show is dedicated to her father, and the most famous woman in rock does everything she can to honor him. She gives the crowd at San Francisco's Cow Palace arena four encores before finally retiring backstage. The applause is still thundering through the stadium when Rebecca Carlton is shot dead. Lieutenant Frank Hastings has been...