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Description
In the Edgar Award-winning first title of the Niccolo Benedetti series, the celebrated detective hunts a serial killer who is terrorizing a small town In the upstate New York town of Sparta, six people die in three weeks. At first the incidents seem accidental: A highway sign drops onto a car full of teenage girls, an old man falls down a set of stairs, and a boy is struck by a sheet of ice that had been building on his garage. But after each case a note turns up. Someone called "Hog" claims show more responsibility for each death, and taunts the police to catch him before he strikes again. The deaths have everybody talking, and the local police department is eventually forced to share the case with famous Italian detective Niccolo Benedetti and his protégé, would-be cop turned private investigator Ron Gresham. A painter, ladies' man, and rule-bending genius, Benedetti views every case as a chance to probe the nature of evil. And with his "analyze and imagine" method, he'll pursue the killer both to stop him and to study him. show lessTags
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Edgar Award
418 works; 15 members
Tozai Mystery Best 100 | The Top 100 Mystery Novels
111 works; 3 members
Author Information
Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Hog Murders
- Original publication date
- 1979-10
- People/Characters
- Niccolo Benedetti
- Important places
- New York, USA
- Dedication
- For Joann and Mary, two good kids
- First words
- Even if no one had been murdered, it's a safe assumption that the citizens of Sparta, New York (population approx. 191,000) would have been a long time forgetting that winter.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"All were killed by the Hand of God."
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 60
- Popularity
- 514,908
- Rating
- (3.70)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 3




























































