A Detailed Man

"A relentless tour of DCs most crime-ridden streets, with many beautifully written surprises, and darker than the deepest noir. Madison Smartt Bell David Swinson's Ezra Simeon has the dry wit of Chandler's Marlowe and the stylish, hard-won bitterness of Connelly's Harry Bosch. Hillary Louise Johnson" Half of DC Police Detective Ezra Simeon's face is immobilized from a persistent case of Bell's Palsy-he must drink through a straw and eat carefully to avoid chewing through his own cheek. He has been detailed from robbery to the cold case department while he heals. "How odd to dream with one eye open, like having one foot in reality," Sim muses in the dark, bluesy vein that is typical of his Chandler-esque narration. "That's what makes dreaming dangerous and why I moved my gun farther from the bed." Detective Simeon's half-frozen world begins to heat up when a friend from his Academy days drops dead of a heart attack, and Sim is tapped to replace him, detailed now to homicide, where he inherits the high-profile case of a murdered escort he alone thinks may be the victim of a serial killer.