Ten Second Staircase

ISBN: 0553804499

Author: Fowler, Christopher

Condition: Used

Its a crime tailor-made for the Peculiar Crimes Unit: a controversial artist is murdered and displayed as part of her own outrageous installation. No suspects, no motive, no evidence-its business as usual for the Units cantankerous founding partners, Arthur Bryant and John May. But this time they have an eyewitness. According to twelve-year-old Luke Tripp, the killer was a cape-clad highwayman atop a black stallion.As implausible as the boys story sounds, Bryant and May take it seriously when The Highwayman is spotted again, striking a dramatic pose at the scene of his next outlandish murder. Whatever the killers real identity, he seems intent on killing off a string of minor celebrities while becoming one himself.As the tabloids look to make a quick bundle on Highwayman Fever, Bryant and May, along with the newest member of the Unit, Mays agoraphobic granddaughter, April, find themselves sorting out a case involving an unlikely combination of artistic rivalries, sleazy sex affairs, the Knights Templars, and street gang feuds. To do it, theyre going to have to use every orthodox-and unorthodox-means at their disposal, including myth, witchcraft, and the psychogeographic history of the citys monsters, past and present.And if one unsolvable crime werent enough, this case has disturbing links to a decades-old killing spree that nearly destroyed the partnership of Bryant and May once beforeand may again. The Peculiar Crimes Unit is one murder away from being closed down for good-and that murder could be their own.