From Publishers Weekly Finnbar Fraleigh returns (after Fatal Command ) as Silicon City's acting police chief in this interesting, realistic yarn. Fraleigh wants the appointment as permanent top cop, but isn't sure if he will win enough votes from the California city's supervisors. One has a brother, Richard Bartlow, whom a sting operation at the Blue Mirage Bar has tied to an imminent sale of stolen bonds. Another, who is also Fraleigh's lover, has surreptitious dealings with Supervisor Bartlow. Fraleigh travels to New York to interrogate a broker who probably stole the bonds, to find out why his lover has flown there, and to help his brother, a cop named Jack, tone down his drinking. The passages explaining Fraleigh's departure from New York years before and his horrendous relationship with Jack yield McNamara's strongest writing. But despite absorbing details and several vivid players, the denouement is uninspired. Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal San Jose Police Chief McNamara's third procedural features acting Silicon City Police Chief Fraleigh and Detectives English and "the Block." This sometimes convoluted thriller pits Fraleigh against duplicitous Captain of Detectives Gerhart in competition for the permanent chief position. The race to trap Richard Bartlow (brother of a city supervisor) selling millions of dollars worth of stolen bearer bonds involves a return to Fraleigh's hometown, New York City, and climaxes in a bloodbath that redeems Fraleigh's career. There is plenty of exposive violence and graphic sex which will satisfy devotees of modern crime fiction, if not others. For large fiction collections.
