The bodies of three young children, abandoned on a bleak hillside, are discovered by Lieutenant O'Connor's Afghan hound, and so begins another long and tough investigation for the Glendale Police Department.
'My favourite American crime-writer' New York Herald TribuneCharles O'Connor of the Glendale police and Vic Varallo are having dinner with their wives when they are interrupted by a call informing them of murder.
The Los Angeles Homicide Department is a revolving door of crime where Lieutenant Luis Mendoza has hardly time to grab a sandwich between the serial muggings of seven senior citizens, the disappearance of a wheelchair-bound man, and the killing of one of two runaway girls.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesLieutenant Luis Mendoza is beset by two insistent puzzlers: how does his team nail the pair who are staging hold-ups at the best restaurants in town?
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesQueer cases run in batches in Los Angeles and Lieutenant Luis Mendoza has a few of them on his books.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesThere's no holiday from crime at the Los Angeles Police Department, not even at Christmas.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesWhen a respectable young woman's naked body is found far from her home, the case proves baffling for Lieutenant Luis Mendoza of the Los Angeles Homicide squad.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesOne of Lieutenant Luis Mendoza's most respected colleagues, young detective Tom Landers is under suspicion in a stolen car racket.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesThings begin to heat up in the Los Angeles Police Department when Lieutenant Luis Mendoza's stolid and good-natured colleague Sergeant Higgins is kidnapped by three dangerous escaped prisoners.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesA beautiful Hollywood blonde inexplicably vanishes from the restaurant she is dining in with her fianc and is found with her neck broken and miles away from the scene of her disappearance.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesWhen a con-man with many aliases is found shot dead in his car, there is only one clue - a single word that he had scrawled on a memo-pad as he was dying - and the suspects are many.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesTwo little girls have been raped and murdered and every available officer in The Los Angeles Police Department is on the case.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesLieutenant Luis Mendoza is laid low with measles and the Homicide Squad of Los Angeles Police Department has to manage without its Chief of Detectives.
Two men involved in a heist are wanted for double homicide; the body of a young punk is found in an alley; the corpse of a girl lies in the dry riverbed.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesLieutenant Mendoza seems to be beset on all sides: at home, his wife Alison is convinced she is having twins; at the office his worry is a man called Francis Ingram, prime suspect for a murder Mendoza does not think he has committed.
'A Luis Mendoza story means superlative suspense' Los Angeles TimesLieutenant Luis Mendoza works with an outstanding team at the Los Angeles Police Department.
Jesse Falkenstein was just putting away his notes at the end of the day when he was visited by Mrs Lester, an acquaintance of his sister, who came to him claiming her husband, Glen, had been seen frequently dining with another woman.
Lieutenant Charles O'Connor of the Glendale police bureau is warned by the Feds that Conway, a crook whose brother was shot by O'Connor during a hold-up, has escaped from jail and is probably bent on vengeance.
As always, Jesse Falkenstein and Sergeant Clock have a score of cases on their hands, but Jesse is mainly interested in the murder of Margaret Brandon, a trance medium.
Sergeant Andrew Clock of Homicide is an honest policeman, but now there's a very grave charge against him: concealing evidence in a murder investigation in return for a bribe.
The brutal and baffling murder of an elderly couple in their quiet suburban home, the kidnapping of two little girls, a bank hold-up, a jewel robbery from a big store - Vic Varallo and the Glendale police force are kept more than usually busy in this complex and exciting drama.
