"NEWMAN REALLY KNOWS THE TERRITORY." -William Caunitz, author of ONE POLICE PLAZA For Detective Joe Dante, a grisly killing is the first shocker in the last case any cop wants... MILLIONAIRE ART COLLECTOR OSCAR WEMBLEY is hacked to death with a kitchen knife, his priceless paintings slashed to bits, his blood used to paint vicious epithets on the walls of his Greenwich Village townhouse... FAT-CAT NEUROSURGEON GEORGE SCULLY is slapped with a killer malpractice suit that could ruin his practice, destroy his marriage to a WASP princess, and expose his cozy setup with shapely blond cokehead Fiona Hassey... BRILLIANT DETECTIVE JOE DANTE, formerly of Midtown South, now assigned to the Sixth Precinct, is tracking down the maniac who probably killed Wembley when an even more bizarre and baffling murder forces him to question everything and everyone he knows...