MURDER ON THE RUN **AWARD FINALIST**

Surrey; England & NYC: Severn House, 1992. 1st Hardcover edition. Slight spine slant else near fine in dust jacket. PI Veronica "Ronnie" Ventana of San Francisco in her first book. An ANTHONY AWARD NOMINEE. "The satisfying momentum never flags from this first novel's opening moment when PI Ronnie Ventana's early morning jog turns into a race for her life. Having witnessed a man hurl another into the San Francisco Bay, Ventana soon recognizes the perpetrator as Pete August, an ex-cop and private investigator so well-connected as to be virtually untouchable--especially when the police fail to recover the victim's body. Colorful characters--including Ventana's salty PI mentor Blackie Coogan, August's beauteous lady friend Judge Martha Coyle and a coterie of seedy informers and enforcers--all contribute surprises as the action breezes along. Despite frosty noncooperation from the police, Ventana seems to have all the angles figured until another eyewitness surfaces, a child whose testimony makes her rethink the entire case. Then a report of a long-ago rape leads Ventana to her final encounter with the murderer and to a neatly tied unexpected ending.": -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Near Fine. Book.