Finished Tu 7/10/18
This is an ancient paperback from the collection that I first finished Mo 7/26/99. Any Police Procedural, over 500 pages, and set in NYC during the 80's will be of prime interest to me. I love this genre, and this book didn't let me down.
TWO INTERLOCKING STORIES-
1) Rich socialite, Babe Vanderwalk Devens has just awakened from a seven year insulin induced coma. She was never expected to have regained consciousness, and her husband was indited and took a plea deal.
Babe was a 'dress designer of the stars', and is confused because the last thing she remembers is a party that she and her husband attended, and at that time, she thought that they were still very happy and deeply in love.
2) A young man is found murdered in the same apartment building as the Devens. This man has been strangled, he's missing a leg, and wearing an elaborate leather mask.
Babe convinces Vince to check out the case against her husband because she believes that he couldn't possibly have tried to kill her. And the murdered young man proves to be just the tip of an iceberg of immoral and criminal behavior.
The guy, Jodie Downs, is a young gay sex worker and he represents ties to an illicit drug and sex operation that involves important figures in the Catholic church and city and state government.
Lieutenant Vince Cardozo is assigned both cases. This novel is one of a series featuring this character.
The big reveal is that Babe's daughter, Cordelia, administered the shot to Babe. She did it because she was under the spell of a family friend that had been raping her since she was a pre-teen.
The novel introduces numerous, colorful characters in the New York High Society of the 80's and also infamous characters in the Fashion, Arts, and Underground Sex scenes.
The author died in 1996 and he was only 58 years old. Maybe I'll get another Cardozo novel, but this one was the only one available on Amazon for a penny plus postage.
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