And All That Stalking

When a woman is found murdered in her North Beach apartment, San Francisco PI Casey McKie takes on the case as a favor to her friend Dee Jefferson. The singer and club owner wants Casey to prove the man accused of the crime, jazz drummer Greg Sanderson, is innocent. Casey discovers the crime scene is free of forensic evidence. She figures it's the work of an experienced killer, and more murders with the same MO prove her hunch correct. Since all the victims were young jazz singers, Casey concludes the killer is someone from the jazz community. Is it Tony, the womanizing owner of a club where they all sang? Or songwriter Bernie Silvers, who pestered them to perform his tunes? Or is it actually Greg, who has a history of violence? Or someone unsuspected? After a string of dead ends, Casey is forced to use a singer as bait to catch the killer. "The pace is crisp, the dialogue snappy and apposite, and the comments on jazz, the music and the people, are insightful...Merrill writes with flair and imagination and this book will appeal to both lovers of crime fiction and jazz fans." - Bruce Crowther, Jazz Journal International "Imagine a setting as syncopated as San Francisco; and the lingo of hard-nosed local gendarmes. Mix both in the unpredictable environment of jazz, and you have an irresistible recipe for another exhilarating page-turner from Joan Merrill and her alter ego, Detective Casey McKie." - Harvey Siders, JazzTimes