An 87th Precinct Novel - one of the greatest of all post-war American crime series.

'Ed McBain effectively invented the police procedural' Observer

'The McBain books are among the very best of their kind ... McBain keeps you reading and keeps you guessing ... the book is a winner' Sunday Telegraph

'Utterly compulsive' Literary Review

'He is the undisputed master and there's nobody who does it better' The Mirror

Cassandra Lee Ridley is an ex-airforce pilot who now scrapes a living flying low-level contraband over the border to Mexico. But when she gets offered a $200,000 contract to fly what she assumes are drugs, she takes a deep breath and agrees to do it. The job goes perfectly, the deliveries are made and the money paid to the Mexican drug lords. One problem though. All $1.7 million dollars of the payment are fake, the Mexicans soon want their money - and Cassandra is their first stop and first fatality.

When her naked body is thrown to the lions in a zoo in the 87th Precinct, New York, it becomes Detective Steve Carella's problem . . .