This was the other Black Lizard book I found at Green Apple Books. The forward in this one is by Harry Whittington himself. It's an overview of his career, which frankly sounds just exhausting. The guy wrote non-stop. It seemed he never found true financial success, but did achieve much-deserved (and gratifying for this reader) critical success finally by the French late in life. I did not realize how many books he had written. It's strange how hard his books are to find these days, considering how many titles he published under his own name. Maybe because his prime was relatively long ago and he truly did get forgotten in between? A real adventurer could also look for the many books he wrote under pseudonyms.
[Vague spoilers ahead]
Forgive me, Killer is a reversal of the themes I have previously encountered in Whittington's books. Instead of a protagonist where shit gets worse and worse as he is destroyed by his own mistakes and the women around him, this one is a redemption story. Lieutenant Mike Ballard is a corrupt cop, utterly cynical, but tough and competent. He's under pressure from the DA and public opinion, but doesn't seem to realize or just doesn't care how serious it is all getting. At the beginning, he goes to a prison to visit a guy on death row, even though the case is pretty cut and dry. It's the guy's wife that convinced him to do it and though a poor, frazzled housewife, Mike is drawn powerfully to the steel under her shabby core and even more powerfully by the unawakened sexual potential in her. She is clearly hot and ready to get hotter but doesn't even know it. It's a great premise.
Ballard starts to poke around the case and quickly starts to see some very corrupt holes in it. His lust pushes him to go past his own safety limits and he adds the gangster boss that pays him to the list of people that want him gone. It's a quick, fun read with a very satisfying (and dare I say it, happyish) ending.
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