AND JUSTICE FOR ONE

A very tough private policeman goes to war with the criminals who run Manhattan's illegal after-hours bars—in an exceptionally violent but exceptionally good first thriller. Following their father's funeral, Jack and George Devlin hit the bars of Manhattan. Bachelor Jack—a highly paid, highly skilled security specialist—ends his night in the arms of a beautiful blond. Suburban father George ends his night with a visit to an illegal after-hours joint and a near-fatal beating by the sadistic bouncers who guard the place for its vile owner, Robert Wexler. When Jack at last locates his comatose, hospitalized brother, he finds that the police haven't a clue to the identity of the thugs and little apparent interest in locating them. Returning to the last place he remembers being with George, Jack picks up the slenderest of threads and follows them with great skill along a trail of rough sex, violence, and political corruption—until he at last rattles Wexler's cage and begins to irritate Wexler's secret partner, a highly placed cop. Jack is not alone in his fight. He has the backing of his employer and technical assistance from his very high-tech security firm. He is solaced by two beautiful women, one of whom belongs to the villainous Wexler. But the powers of the enemy seem boundless since they include far too many policemen, the Irish underground, and the general nighttime rot of a city that ought to be at home and in bed. Dark, sexy, tough, and fast. Reminiscent of the best early Lawrence Sanders.