Killings

About the book

About Killings

Product Description When a key witness is found murdered, the victim of a serial killer with an apparent taste for blood, Bino Phillips wonders about the disappearance of another witness and is distraught when the would-be Dracula targets Bino's secretary. Reprint. From Publishers Weekly He may not yet be as acclaimed as some of his colleagues, but Gray is about as powerful a purveyor of hard-boiled fiction as there is on the contemporary scene. Tall, tough Texas attorney Bino Phillips ( In Defense of Judges ) becomes involved in the search for a killer who drinks the blood of his prey after the madman murders two college girls who were to be the lawyer's surprise witnesses in a drug case. As the reader knows early and as law enforcement authorities learn midway through the book, high on the vampire killer's hit list is the lovely Dodie Peterson, Bino's secretary and possible love interest. Together with assistant DA Mel Strange and no-nonsense investigator Hardy Cole (in many ways a second--and equal--hero), Bino must not only track down the killer but must also deal with petty local cops and a pair of federal agents more interested in images and protocol than in catching "Dracula Don." Gray paints vivid, compelling pictures of both major and minor characters. That skill may actually work against him here: his killer is so horrifyingly real that squeamish readers may be turned off. For the rest of us, nonstop action, sparkling dialogue and clever plot twists add up to one helluva read. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. About the Author A. W. Gray, a native Texan, has drawn critical acclaim for his crime novels, most of which feature Texas crime lawyer Bino Phillips. He is also the author of the true-crime book Poisoned Dreams. From Kirkus Reviews White-haired, wild-eyed defender Bino Phillips (Bino, 1988) has pinned his hopes of getting coked-up football player Mickey Stanley acquitted of serious dealing on two witnesses--but one of them is dead, her body half drained of blood, and now the other has gone missing. So Bino and his redoubtable office staff (secretary Dodie Peterson, investigator/bookie Half-a-Point Harrison) get sucked into the hunt for the schizo that fatheaded FBI man Nelson Deletay (who goes around telling people The Silence of the Lambs was based on his work) calls Dracula Don. But by the time they sort out the reluctant witnesses to Don's next killing--Oscar Beemish, the Egg Roll Wizard from Detroit, and Rascal Erly, ``not quite a street person''--Don, driven by voices, has staked out Dodie's place, convinced that uniting with her will confirm his status as the Messiah. Creepy, funny, and sick, with as much tension as a high-wire walk on a high-voltage wire. Shove over, Elmore Leonard. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. From Library Journal There is a serial killer loose in Dallas who drinks the blood of his victims. Bino (as in "albino") Philips, Gray's hard-boiled, true Texan lawyer with an attitude, here makes his third appearance (after Bino , Dutton, 1989, and In Defense of Judges , Dutton, 1991), and he finds that he has more to contend with than the federal agents and crooked judges of the first two books: The serial killer has acquired a taste for Bino's current trial witnesses. One is dead, another missing, and his secretary is getting threatening phone calls. It is time for Bino to lead the hunt. The combination of strong characterization and frantic pacing is engaging. Although Bino's clashes with Judge Hazel Sanderson seem lifted from John Mortimer's "Rumpole" series, the killer is quite original--a combination David Koresh and your worst nightmare. Still, the vigilante justice spoils the ending, and blood drips from some pages; this is not a book to be read before meals. Fans of the author will want this, but it is not an essential purchase. - Randall L. Schroeder, Augustana Coll. Lib., Rock Island, Ill. Copyright 1993 Reed Business I

Reader conversation

Discuss this book