The most famous televangelist in America declares "total war" on the sinners of the earthAustin Holloway came to Los Angeles in the 1930s with nothing but a briefcase, a few hundred dollars, and a letter of introduction to a local radio station. The son of a revival tent preacher, Holloway wanted to bring the good word to the airwaves, first radio, and then television. He had no idea he was starting an empire.Decades later, Holloway is the richest man of God ...

A mob boss is dead, and his widow wants Drake to help him rest in peaceDominic Vennezio is found on the floor of his beachside love nest, murdered on a Sunday night. It looks like an ordinary mob hit, part of a routine power struggle with the East Coast Outfit, but Vennezio's widow has other suspicions. Her marriage to the kingpin had been strained ever since he began taking his secretary for weekends at the beach house, but even now, she feels a devotion to him. Sh...

A crime reporter with ESP tackles a double homicideIn 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, and whe...

In the underworld of San Francisco, a broken cop searches for his daughterSeven years ago, Frank Hastings quit on his family. After a half-baked pro football career, he had fallen in love with the bottle and needed to go west. In San Francisco, he got sober, and now he's one of the toughest police officers around, in a city whose counterculture does not make life easy for the men in blue. San Francisco in 1969 is an ugly place, torn apart by drugs and crime and indi...

A moonlighting director finds his sideline more dangerous than he expectedAlan Bernhardt is just starting rehearsal when his pager goes off. No one in the small San Francisco theater minds—they know that to make it on the stage, you have to be prepared to do all sorts of odd jobs off of it. But this director's job is odder than most. He works for Herbert Dancer, head of a boutique private investigation service. A corporate secretary has vanished with a sheaf of valu...

Stalked by a nighttime killer, a woman does whatever it takes to surviveHe calls himself Tarot. His first victim was a mother, killed while her daughter slept in the next room. His second was a truck-stop waitress, murdered—like the first woman—while she slept. After each one, he sent letters to the newspapers, boasting of his crimes and promising more to come. The third victim will die soon, he tells them. But first, she must be warned.Joanna is drinking her...

Hastings investigates a murder among a set of wealthy adulterersBy 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 just sober enou...

On a fishing trip with his estranged son, Hastings comes under attackLieutenant Frank Hastings checks his gun at airport security so he can meet his son the moment the boy gets off the plane in San Francisco. After a year apart, he finds Darrell to be as moody and withdrawn as any other teenager, and prays that a fishing trip will bring them closer together. He is unaware that he and Darrell are about to experience the sort of bonding that only terror can provide.

To honor a dying don's last wish, a mob lieutenant searches for hidden diamondsAfter seven years ruling his empire from prison, Don Carlo remains as powerful as ever, but his heart is beginning to fail. On the verge of death, he begs his right-hand man, Bacardo, to look after his family. Not his wife and children, the don explains, but Louise and Angela—his daughter and granddaughter from a beloved mistress who died long ago.To Louise, the don bequeaths one m...

Searching for a missing society matron, Hastings finds danger amid the upper crustIn 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. When he gets i...

To unlock the secrets of a homicide, Bernhardt must connect with a terrified childDennis tells the police he was sleeping when his wife was killed. Connie stumbled upon a prowler, he says, and paid for the mistake with her life. The police believe his story, but this cold man's crocodile tears cannot convince Connie's sister, Janice. She suspects her brother-in-law of a heinous crime, and it will take an unusual investigator to prove her right.Alan Bernhardt ...

A murder witness flees to California for protection, taking refuge in the theaterDiane Cutler is half drunk and half stoned when she sees her stepfather carrying the body out of the house. She and her boyfriend look on, horrified, as real estate tycoon Preston Daniels loads his dead mistress into the car. Unable to resist their curiosity, they follow him, and watch as he dumps the poor woman's body in the rocks and sand of the Cape Cod landfill. Diane doesn't know w...