Romance — Ed McBain

THE 87th PRECINCT... is where criminals and cops share secrets, tricks, and truths, where strangers meet, fall in love, and sometimes kill.

ROMANCE... is a would-be hit play about an actress in a hit play pursued by a knife-wielding stalker. Until the leading lady is stabbed outside the theater. Before the detectives of the 87th Precinct can solve that crime, the actress is stabbed again. This time for keeps.

A.D.A. Nellie Brand moves in for a murder conviction, but Carella is sure the wrong guy is taking the rap. While blond Bert Kling grills suspects ranging from the show's producers to the leading lady's lovely understudy, he's falling in love with a doctor -- who happens to be black. Romance is in the air. And only a very determined killer doesn't seem to care.