A young boy is interrogated for having Louis Markowitz's watch. He's trembling, afraid in front of the formidable woman with the green eyes, a green as pure as they can come. She's Markowit'z daughter and she's on the crime scene where her dad's body was found along the third old female killed in the past few months. All she wants is to make sure of all the details of how her dad's body was before the young boy search his pockets. Her dad is dead but she doesn't show any emotion. She gets what she wants and let the boy go.

At the same time, commissioner Beale is besides himself when he learns that Kathy is in there.
She's on leave for the time being and decides to make the best of it by partnering up with Charles Butler who inheritated her at Markowitz's death. Charles is a genius with a loony face. He's in love with Kathy and knows that as soon as they partner up he must call her Mallory while he's been calling her Kathy all his life.
He inherits her and his place at the poker games every Thursday night at Rabbi Kaplan's house.

Sergeant Coffey inherits Markowitz's office and position and knows he will never win against Kathy who is a genius in her own right. He also tries to make sure that Kathy will not be killed the way her dad was killing tracking her serial murder. For the past few months, old ladies have been killed and mutilated. And Markowitz, the super intelligent cop, died finding out who it was but not telling anyone about it!

During her free time, Mallory searches the past of all Charles' tenants. She learns that Edith Candle, the window of the famous magician Max Candle, is doing some insider tradings. She wants to confront her, but she's Charles's last relative alive. So she knows she cannot go there.

Like Markowitz, she favors money motives, so she follows the most likely to have profited from her aunt's death as all the old ladies left earth leaving large amounts of money to their sole heirs. She follows Jonathan Gaynor, whose aunt was the first to die, but has to write him out as another old lady is killed and there was no way for him to do the killing in a span of 20mn. She, then, asks Charles to evaluate Henry Cathery, who ,like Charles, is a genius in his own right. But Henry is as much guilty as Gaynor appears to be. So Mallory is left with finding something else than a money motive and Edith Candle has predicted her death as she had done in the past and very successfully.
While searching her dad's schedule, she finds out that he had helped another young girl who looks like her adoptive mom. And as she meets with her, she finds out that while Brenda can cry for Markowitz's death, she still cannot.

Mallory is surely running to her death and Riker, Charles, even Coffey are trying their best to stop her sure death.

Folks, READ THIS BOOK!!!!

It actually got me by surprise. I loved Shell Game because of the woven atmosphere and how I was drawn in it, but this one is good because you're definitely surprised when you learned who is the serial killer who kills those lovely old ladies. It's well written, and it's fun to meet all those old ladies and learn about Edith Candle and actually to learn to know all the characters that you will surely follow in the next novels. It's on paper back, and it is worth buying. No more advice!!!!!!