Touch of Death — Mark Sadler

Sam Shurk lay on the bed, one arm dangling, his head at an angle no living person's head could be, the red finger welts on his throat already turning purple. I bent over him. A thin trickle of blood oozed from his mouth. His neck had been broken…

It was a tough case from the beginning. Paul Shaw's client was dead before they'd even made a deal. And the private eye found himself working overtime for the widow. Shaw was always one step behind the killer…from the client's stately Long Island home to an East Village jazz joint -- to a Bowery flop house. Then the killer decided to turn on the hunter…