Epitaph » (Reprint)

A retired investigator unearths an unrepentant SS doctor still practicing his trade in Queens, New York, in this evocative crime novel by a talented new writer.

Library Journal

Retired P.I.William Riskin spends his golden years sweeping out a Queens Offtrack Betting Office and waiting to die when he spots the newspaper obituary of his old partner, Jean Goldblum, a hardened concentration camp survivor and war hero. Although he has mixed feelings about Jean, who brutally exposed his wife's infidelity and destroyed his marriage, William pays his respects at the funeral and learns that Jean was working on the most important case of his life at the time of his death. Investigating a list of names that Jean left for safekeeping with a neighbor, William follows a trail of missing retirees who supposedly moved to Florida but never arrived there. In turn, this leads him to horrifying crimes committed 60 years earlier in occupied France. This first novel by the creative director of a New York ad agency skillfully combines a compelling crime story with clearly drawn characters (most over the age of 70) and wry, tart insights about the indignities and humiliations of growing old ("William the Conquerer was going back into mothballs. William the Meek was now taking calls."). For all mystery collections. Wilda Williams, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.