TAKING THE LAW INTO HIS HANDS AFTER HIS EX-WIFE IS MURDERED ISN'T ENOUGH...EQUALING THE SCORE IS

Luke Beckett is anything but your average Hollywood vice squad detective. A cop who refuses to play the game, he is like some Avenging Angel always quick to judge, and to punish with his rock-hard fists those who don't see his way. Forced to resign after a prostitute bust goes awry, he accepts a police lieutenant position in that God-forsaken place, Palm Springs, where there is hardly enough action to keep his blood circulating. That all changes when his ex-wife Marcia, since re-married to an aging American tycoon and one of Palm Springs' wealthiest, most influential residents, is found murdered at a swank party under suspicious circumstances with hardly a clue. Assigned to investigate her murder, this short-tempered, superbly trained former big city cop finds more than he expects-a secret romance with a lesbian lover and possible mob connections to her untimely death and assassination attempt on his own life-in this engaging, thought-provoking original hard-boiled mystery from the author of the critically-acclaimed novel, Scared to Death.