The Prostitutes' Ball (Shane Scully Series #10) »

An Emmy Award-winning writer and producer of such TV hits as The Rockford Files, Wiseguy, and The A-Team, Stephen J. Cannell has also locked up a successful career as a crime novelist with his popular line of Shane Scully detective thrillers.

Detective Shane Scully responds to a call in the Hollywood hills at a once-immaculate mansion, the scene of an infamous murder twenty-five years prior. He discovers the remnants of a lavish pool party. The revelers have fled, leaving three dead bodies in their wake, all shot with the same gun. One is an acclaimed film producer. The other two, a pair of gorgeous women.

With his new partner, Sumner “Hitch” Hitchens, Scully begins to investigate what looks to be an open-and-shut case: The women were hired prostitutes, and there’s security video of an angry husband firing on all three. A simple case of brutal revenge. But nothing is ever as simple as it seems: There’s a single spent bullet casing that doesn’t match the rest.

From that single bullet emerges a story of love, murder, suicide, and one of the biggest financial frauds in L.A. history. Someone has gone to great lengths to cover up a decades-old crime, and as Scully and Hitch get closer to the answer, they find themselves in a killer’s crosshairs.

Publishers Weekly

Cannell injects new life into his bestselling Shane Scully series by giving the LAPD homicide detective a new partner in his 10th outing (after The Pallbearers). Since Shane's regular partner is on leave, Shane teams with Sumner Hitchens, a handsome African-American detective widely disliked throughout the department. Hitch, who dresses like a menswear model, lives like the millionaire he has become as the result of selling the story of one of his homicide cases to the movies. This rubs Shane the wrong way, but after Hitch saves his life, Shane begins to see another side to the man. A quick resolution to a triple homicide they investigate--a famous movie director and two prostitutes shot dead at a party--leads them to another mystery that occurred 25 years before. Hitch and Shane are a powerful combination, both as characters and as detectives. Readers will look forward to seeing more of this dynamic duo. Author tour. (Oct.)