For the sake of a distant cousin, Mitch Tobin takes on an impossible case On the outskirts of Greenwich Village, among a wasteland of warehouses and tenements, a group of young people are opening a coffee shop. They are idealistic, giddy, and beautiful—the picture of 1960s youth—but their optimism cannot last. When a corrupt detective comes around demanding regular bribes, one of the young hippies, Robin Kennely, asks for help from a distant relative, the honest but fallen former cop Mitchell Tobin. When Tobin visits the coffee shop for the first time, he finds Robin in a state of shock, clutching a knife and covered in blood. Two corpses lie upstairs. It seems impossible that anyone but Robin could have killed them, but for the sake of a group of children whose lives are so much brighter than his own, Tobin attempts to prove otherwise.

At a mental institution, Mitch Tobin searches for a patient with a violent sense of humor Mitch Tobin is about to be committed. Since his abrupt dismissal from the NYPD, Tobin’s nerves have been frayed, and if it wasn’t for his work as a private detective, he might well be in need of actual psychiatric care. But during his stay at the Midway, a halfway house for those recovering from mental illness, he’ll only be impersonating a patient while trying to uncover the identity of a particularly dangerous prankster. Four booby traps have been set on the grounds of this stately old institution, each one more dangerous than the last. Tobin has only just checked in when he finds trap number five: a tripwire that sends him tumbling down the stairs, snapping his arm. This prankster is not playing around. Tobin will be lucky to leave the Midway with his life intact; hanging onto his sanity may prove even tougher.

Working night security at a museum, ex-cop Mitchell Tobin finds a naked corpse on display in this crime novel by the Edgar Award–winning author. When he first met Linda Campbell, Mitchell Tobin was nothing more to her than the man who had put her husband in jail. It took over a year for them to begin their affair, but once it started, it became intense—lasting right up to the day when Tobin shirked duty to see her, and his partner got killed as a result. Years later, on a penny-ante night security job, Tobin is doing his rounds when Linda comes to ask a favor. Out of prison and hoping to go straight, her husband is having trouble escaping his old cronies. Tobin has just agreed to try to help when they come upon a corpse, lying naked on the floor. If he’s to do anything for Linda, Tobin will have to keep clear of the murder investigation. But as her husband knew all too well, it takes much more than self-discipline to put a checkered past behind you.