On her arrival at the station house, detective Katie Logan finds a distraught but cooperative Rebecca. Her driving instructor, Andrew Newell, is totally out of it, however. He appears to be drunk. Or on drugs. He's obviously incompetent, and certainly, what has now become a case of negligent homicide warrants his arrest. The situation grows far more sinister, though, when Logan learns that the victim's handbag has been retrieved. It identifies the dead woman as Newell's wife.

With the narrative drive of such popular McBain novels as Romance, Kiss, and The Last Best Hope, as well as such classics as Blackboard Jungle, which McBain wrote under the name of Evan Hunter, this new work by a master at the top of his form nurtures its tension with taut drama, terse dialogue, and unsparing humor.