The Big Top in California is the background which Howie Rook, ex-newspaperman and collector of murder cases, takes on for protective coloring when he is tossed an impeccable suicide by the dead man's widow. Objectively observing, taking part in the clown acts, getting the walk around from two and four legged performers, he sweats it out to prove his verdict. (Kirkus' Reviews)

A violent man is killed in a hit and run, and his wife is accused of the crime In the inky Los Angeles twilight, a man takes his dog for a walk. They are crossing the street when a station wagon comes charging around the curb, crashing into man and beast. Both are killed. The dog might have been innocent, but the man had it coming. It only takes a day for the district attorney to accuse the dead man's wife of the crime. Deirdre Charteris, a former starlet who has lost none of her looks, had every reason to want her husband dead: He was psychotic, violent, and refused to agree to a divorce. But Dee swears her innocence, and Howie Rook believes her. A retired newspaperman with a detective's sixth sense, he will do whatever he can to prove her innocence. But he will find that asking questions can be just as dangerous as going for a walk in the dark. "Rook Takes Knight "is part of the Howie Rook Mysteries series, which also includes "Unhappy Hooligan."