"When a blind couple is murdered, Steve Carell's only clue is the ten-year-old dream one of the victims had, a dream that leads to a killer whose secret is worth murder"--Cover p. [4].

"It was exactly the sort of case Detective Steve Carella despised. One girl had been raped and murdered; another savagely knifed. A cold-blooded madman was loose in the 87th Precinct. The survivor of the slashing said she could identify her assailant in the police line-up, but he certainly wasn't Carella's prime suspect."--Publisher's description.

The 87th Precinct gets a visit from one of the city's most accomplished criminals -- a thief known as the Deaf Man. Because he might be deaf. Or he might not. So little is known about the man who is harassing Detective Steve Carella with puzzling messages that it is hard to tell. But as soon as a pattern emerges, the detectives of the 87th are forced to hit the books and brush up on their Shakespeare -- because each new clue contains a line from one...

As the 87th Precinct buckles beneath a crime-crowded spring, prank phone calls get shoved to the sidelines--until the calls trigger a deadly game of wits that could leave a local bank missing millions.

"A young girl jumps to her death. A salesman gets blown apart. Two semi-naked bodies are found dead on a bed with all the hallmarks of a love pact... Spring really was here for the 87th Precinct. Steve Carella and Cotton Hawes thought the double suicide stank of homicide, but they just couldn't get a break. Fortunately Hawes has something else going on in his life at the moment - something like love." -- Provided by publisher.

The celebrated, award-winning novelist presents a retrospective collection of scenes from the lives of the policewomen of his famed 87th Precinct and of the women in the lives of the precinct's policemen.