When the most hated landlord in San Francisco takes an unexpected jump off the roof of his own building, it isnat too hard to find suspects. But the police want to call it a suicide, since both the Mayor and press are complaining about the dismal closure rate for homicide investigations. Call it a suicide and no one has to solve the case. But ex-cop Sam McGowan knows it was murder. He also knows that anyone living on the top floor of the building should be a suspect, including himself. So Sam decides to get to know his neighbors: A lonely jazz singer more than willing to confess to any crime, past or present; Two young women paying for graduate school by operating a website that reveals a lot more than their SAT scores; The B-movie producer with a swollen prostate and shrinking bank balance; And the brothers at the end of the hall, who just quit their day jobs to sell marijuana for the Mexican mob. The only thing they have in common is a general agree-ment that their dead landlord got what he deserved—and that one of them is probably responsible. As more bodies surface and alliances shift, Sam finds himself jumping back and forth between his old life as a cop and his new one as a murder suspect, unable to decide where he really belongs.
Author
Tim Maleeny is the award-winning author of STEALING THE DRAGON, a thriller about the Chinese Triads that was named a Killer Book of the Year by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association. Publishers Weekly said his series featuring private detective Cape Weathers “engages the reader without insisting that it be taken too seriously, with writing that will resonate with Elmore Leonard fans.” His novel BEATING THE BABUSHKA was called “the second coming of Travis McGee," and the third book in the series, a novel with the unlikely title GREASING THE PIÑATA, is "just right for readers who like a gritty crime novel with a labyrinth of plot twists," according to Library Journal. Tim's standalone comedic thriller JUMP was described as "a perfectly blended cocktail of escapism" by Publishers Weekly and was named Best Mystery of the Year by Foreword Magazine. Tim has won the prestigious Macavity Award for his short fiction, which appears in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen, and several major anthologies, including Thriller 2, Uncage Me, Fear, and Death Do Us Part. Crimespree Magazine said “Maleeny gives readers a fresh and fast take that enthralls,” and Bookreporter called him “one of the new princes of detective fiction.” A member of the International Thriller Writers, Sisters In Crime, and Mystery Writers of America, Tim currently lives and writes in New York City.
