Collin Wilcox

To honor a dying don's last wish, a mob lieutenant searches for hidden diamonds After seven years ruling his empire from prison, Don Carlo remains as powerful as ever, but his heart is beginning to fail. On the verge of death, he begs his right-hand man, Bacardo, to look after his family. Not his wife and children, the don explains, but Louise and Angela-his daughter and granddaughter from a beloved mistress who died long ago. To Louise, the don bequeaths...

Investigating an ex-cop's death, Hastings gets drawn into a family conspiracy It was just after he made lieutenant that Frank Hastings told Charlie Quade to resign. They had known each other at the academy, and Quade was a rotten cop from day one. Dogged by rumors of corruption, Quade left without protest, eking out a living doing security work. When Hastings hears Quade has been shot dead, he doesn't blink. The only surprise is the place the ex-cop...

A moonlighting director finds his sideline more dangerous than he expected Alan Bernhardt is just starting rehearsal when his pager goes off. No one in the small San Francisco theater minds-they know that to make it on the stage, you have to be prepared to do all sorts of odd jobs off of it. But this director's job is odder than most. He works for Herbert Dancer, head of a boutique private investigation service. A corporate secretary has vanished...

Hastings chases a serial killer whose deranged letters hold a city for ransom The doctor comes through his front door as he always does, a bundle of mail in hand. He's about to walk up the stairs when the bullet passes through his back, puncturing his heart and leaving him dead in his front hall. By the time Lieutenant Frank Hastings arrives, rigor mortis has set in, and the doctor's body rolls easily away from the wall. Pinned beneath him is a note...

Searching for a missing society matron, Hastings finds danger amid the upper crust In a glamorous part of San Francisco, a maid has been strangled to death. Frank Hastings stands over the body, knowing it will be a long day. But before finishing with the crime scene, he gets another call-an officer has been shot, and Hastings must lead the tactical squad. By lunchtime, the boy who shot the officer is dead, and Hastings is hungry for an easy assignment....

After a concert, a goddess of rock is shot dead backstage It's the finest performance of Rebecca Carlton's career. The show is dedicated to her father, and the most famous woman in rock does everything she can to honor him. She gives the crowd at San Francisco's Cow Palace arena four encores before finally retiring backstage. The applause is still thundering through the stadium when Rebecca Carlton is shot dead. Lieutenant Frank Hastings has been...

A senator's life is in danger-and anyone in San Francisco could be a killer Senate majority leader Donald Ryan is a kingmaker, with the power to make or break presidencies, and the ability to reshape the country with a flick of his pen. He is also a very sick man, recovering from a heart attack that must be kept secret at all costs. But when a series of death threats jeopardizes his planned return to public life, the FBI calls in San Francisco police...

An old friend is murdered, and Hastings will do anything he can to avenge her When Frank Hastings knew Meredith Powell, she was a gawky ten-year-old without a care in the world. More than two decades later, she has grown into a stunning beauty-but the gleam in her eye is gone. Over lunch, Meredith confesses that she lives in terror of her emotionally abusive boyfriend, a possessive, rage-filled man named Charles. Hastings, a homicide lieutenant with...

A dying art collector asks Bernhardt to revisit him in his darkest hour The first time Betty Giles went missing, her employers wanted her dead. They hired Alan Bernhardt, theater director and sometimes PI, to find her, but when he discovered their scheme, he drew a sawed-off shotgun to save her life. Now Betty's missing again, hiding somewhere in Europe, and her old bosses want her found. Will Bernhardt deliver her to the man who once tried to have...

After an ice pick is used for murder in San Francisco, the Washington elite comes down on Hastings It starts as an everyday fender bender: Two cars collide in heavy evening traffic. But when the police arrive to take statements, the occupants of one car take off running. They leave another man behind, slumped in the backseat, dead of a single stab wound to the chest. Lieutenant Frank Hastings abandons a family dinner to take charge of the scene, which...