by John Ball (Author)
MONEY, MANIPULATIION, AND MURDER
A successful Wall Street speculator is turning his custom-built car into the private drive of his vast Long Island estate when a bomb blasts him and the vehicle to bits. In nearby Westchester another financial manipulator is executed in the back seat of his Cadillac.
Police specialist John Harbizon is called in to investigate. He soon realizes that he has a difficult task before him; the careers of both men consisted mainly in taking away other people's money, and many had cause to hate them.
Then the vice president of an L.A. brokerage firm is electrocuted while taking a shower and another financial advisor leaps or is pushed from the twenty-third floor of his Chicago penthouse.
Harbizon recognizes the frightening potential of the pattern that is emerging. Police specialists from New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles and two eager journalists join the investigation as the series of murders stuns the financial world. Someone seems to be more interested in collecting death certificates than stock certificates.
A novel of ruthlessly professional murders, brilliant police work, and swift suspense by the author of In the Heat of the Night.
Author Biography
The son of a scientist, John Ball was born in Schenectady, New York, and grew up in Milwaukee. He attended Carroll College in Wisconsin. He subsequently worked as a science staff writer on Fortune, a music critic and feature writer for the Brooklyn Eagle, a daily columnist on the New York World-Telegram & Sun, a broadcaster for a Washington radio station, and a Director of Public Relations for the Institute of Aerospace Sciences. His In the Heat of the Night was awarded a Mystery Writers of America "Edgar" for the Best First Mystery Novel of the Year, and since had been followed by The Cool Cottontail, also featuring his African-American detective, Virgil Tibbs. Mr. Ball has also authored a number of notable young adult books.