This tragic tale of adolescent obsession from the bestselling author of the 87th Precinct novels and the creator of the Matthew Hope detective series turns a sunny, quiet, perfectly ordinary autumnal school day suddenly dark when the sixteen-year-old Rebecca Patton runs down and kills a pedestrian during a driving lesson. It all happens so quickly, so inexplicably, like an accident. The victim -- a woman carrying a red handbag -- had been stepping off the curb at the corner, and then she was lying in the street, in critical condition.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.… (more)