“There were three men, two young girls, and a baby in the ditch.” All naked. All dead. Caught up in a gang war. Between three gangs!

Interestingly, abortion is a major factor in this. A fifteen year old girl is ‘not allowed’ to have one, which precipitates the violence. Interesting, as some folks in the United States RIGHT NOW, nearly 50 years after this book was published, are still attempting to ‘not allow’ an entire country of woman to have the freedom to choose. 50 years! WTF.

Not a fan of Randall Nesbitt’s statement interspersed between the story of the investigation. I found it to be more interruptive than interesting.

But, I’m a big fan of the 87th, and the story of their investigation was as good as always! ( )

Six naked bodies, on of whom is an infant, are dumped in a ditch with no identification. Fortunately for the 87th Street Precinct, one of the girls of a gang member is horrified over the accidental killing of a baby tips the police to the fact that this was gang-related. This book oscillates between the police work and the gang leader justifying his actions of the killing and aftermath. ( )

Once again, McBain plays with form as the detective work carried out by our heroes is interspersed with a comprehensive confession that fills in many of the gaps. These two narrative threads run side by side sometimes switching off from paragraph to paragraph with no indication of the change in POV. I can't think of many modern novelists who could pull this off so seamlessly and keep things moving forwards. It's utterly cinematic. Bravo. ( )