Charles Salzberg

"Swann's last case nearly killed him. Now he's sworn off his profession and taken on a steady gig. But climbing stairs to hook poor people up to cable is hard on his knees... and not the kind of connections he's good at making. So when an opportunity arises to bring order to chaos for a price--his secret pleasure in life--Swann is pulled back in. The case starts simply, with a call to find a burglary suspect who's gone on the lam. But he's soon on...

In the ballroom of a sparsely furnished Connecticut mansion, police find a shocking sight: four bodies lined up next to each other, three teenagers and a middle-aged woman, each lying on a blanket, each shot once in the head. In an upstairs bedroom: an elderly woman and the family dog, both of them shot as well. The only person missing is the husband, father, son, and prime suspect, John Hartman, who's got a three-week jump on the police. Through...