by John D. MacDonald
Tal Howard, home from a Korean War POW camp, follows a lead from a dead fellow prisoner to a small upstate New York town, where a hidden stash of money is supposed to be waiting if he can locate the woman who can lead him to it.
A dangerous man from the prison camp is also on the trail, and their search leads to dead bodies and buried secrets.
John MacDonald constructs a smooth narrative that keeps tightening its grip.
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| John D. MacDonald |
MacDonald uses an ordinary town and its “respectable” people as the container for escalating violence and moral compromise.
This is a mystery, not an action novel, even though there are grisly murders and a genuinely frightening sociopathic antagonist.
The violence serves as the inevitable release of the pressure built up from years of lies and greed.
It’s tense, ugly, and violent, with a compelling conclusion.
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| "A Bullet for Cinderella" (Portuguese) |
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| "Cindy, A Name for Death" (Spanish) |
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| "A Dead Man's Message" (Finnish) |
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| "Once Upon a Time in Hell and Back" (German) |
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