In the shadows of unbearable tragedy, an unlikely killing machine begins a one-man war to bring a city to its knees -- a battle that will touch the lives of its eight million citizens including:

• a writer on the verge of a breakthrough
  
  
• a charismatic ex-police commissioner -- and the inside choice for the next mayor -- on the edge of a breakdown
  
  
• a beautiful, sophisticated art dealer plumbing the depths of her own fierce sexuality
  
  
• a defense attorney who prefers murder trials because there's one less witness
  
  
• an ex-addict who has turned being clean into a living, mopping up after New York's nightlife

Pulsating with the lives of its denizens -- bartenders and hookers, power brokers and politicos, cops and secretaries, editors and dreamers -- Lawrence Block's electrifying new novel reveals the small town at the heart of the Big Apple in all its power, terror, and stark beauty.