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Dirty Harry- on the trail of a vicious
sex killer in the hellpits of San Francisco!

 

Depts.

Homicide

Records

Stakeout

The Arcade

Missing
Persons

City of Blood
(Apr 1982)

"You're going to get this bastard, aren't you, Harry?"

Only "Dirty Harry" Callahan can stop the "Snuff" Psycho on his `Frisco Rampage!  Winos brutally slain on San Francisco's skid row.  Beautiful young women butchered in the act of sex by a perverted killer.  The acts of two men- or one?  Not even Dirty Harry knows.  But he's going to find out, if he has to break every law to do it.  From `Frisco's sexual underground to the boardrooms in the city's sky, Harry plunges into a blood-streaked manhunt that will leave only one survivor.

 

Review

6 Shots, Or Only 5?
*****

Several ingredients contribute to make this a worthy entry:  a killer that favors beheading his victims, a case that forces Harry to dig just to find the first lead, and a relationship between Harry and his partner that is given some depth.  His new partner has lots to do here, as he aids Harry in a rooftop chase against snipers, and gets to play good cop to Harry's bad while questioning a difficult suspect.

The partner aspect also figures into an extended undercover assignment, where Harry is the silent watchdog, similar to Chico Gonzales' aid in Dirty Harry. It is during this assignment that one of the book's best sequences occurs- a suspenseful showdown in Golden Gate Park with Death itself!

It also has one of the more interesting crime scenes to appear in the books, involving a murder in a San Francisco sex club, where everyone is forced to remain as they are until the investigation is over.

 

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