"...Crandell crafts not only a tantalizingly complex crime-one with conspiratorial proportions-but also deftly limns an atmosphere of gloomy transgression and a dark world of crime and subterfuge...A thrilling crime drama, suspenseful and thoughtful."
KIRKUS REVIEWS
"An exceptional read."
MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW
A Maryland State Arts Council Award-Winning Novel
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Washington, July 1947
Young Congressman John F. Kennedy and private detective Jack Griffin form a tenuous friendship and rivalry at an Army-Navy Club dinner, hours before the eye-catching Betty Dyson is murdered.
A probable suspect, Kennedy hires Griffin to investigate, fearing the police will quickly arrest the "playboy congressman." Griffin, a wartime paratrooper and ex-FBI agent learns from detective Vince O''Heaney that the Dyson was raped, slashed, and stabbed.
The police see no need for an autopsy, and her fighter ace husband has her cremated. The pilot has an alibi. Kennedy''s wealthy father, Joseph P. Kennedy, arrives in Washington to take charge, fearing any public connection of the congressman with the murder will doom his career.
With the police building the case against their only suspect, a crooked detective orders Griffin off the Dyson case and offers to cleanse Kennedy''s file for $500,000. Meanwhile, two hoodlums ransack Griffin''s apartment, rough him up, and warn him off the case. A sometime Kennedy girlfriend is murdered, and police superintendent Blaine wants Congressman Kennedy to help block efforts to investigate corruption involving unsolved murders in Washington. Kennedy makes no commitment.
That''s when things get rough.
William F. Crandell pulls no punches in this this hard-boiled adventure, the first volume in the Jack Griffin Detective Series. Crandell has skillfully resurrected the sharp wit and patter, as well as the unpredictable twists and turns, of Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. An award-winning author residing in southern Delaware, Crandell has a storied history with DC politics. The Griffin series crackles with DC authenticity and insider knowledge. Readers who enjoy political intrigue and gritty crime drama will feel at home here.