The Empty Hours

Description for THE EMPTY HOURS by Ed McBain:

THREE CHILLERS FROM THE FILES OF THE 87TH PRECINCT:

THE EMPTY HOURS

She was young, wealthy, and dead-strangled to death in a slum apartment.  All they had to go on was her name, some cancelled checks, and an unknown killer.  As Steve Carella said, "Those checks are a diary of her life.  We'll find the answer there."  How was he to know the checks would reveal something much stranger than murder...?

"J"

On Passover, the rabbi bled to death.  Someone had brutally stabbed him, painted a big, ugly "J" on the synagogue wall, and scrammed.  Everyone knew who the killer was.  It had to be Finch, the Jew-hater.  Or did it?  It was up to Meyer Meyer and the boys of the 87th to decipher the "J" and find the murder...!

STORM

The snow was pure white except where Cotton Hawes stared down at the bright red pool of blood spreading away from the dead girl's body.  Hawes was supposed to be enjoying a quiet ski weekend with a beautiful blonde.  But he couldn't ignore the body that had suddenly been "put on ice."  Nor could he stand by and watch the local cops make a mess of the case.  He had to catch the ski-slope slayer before he killed again...