"Truly gripping . . . a lot more realistic than most near-future SF, as well as being just plain better written than most of it." — Science Fiction Chronicle

In the crumbling San Francisco of tomorrow, a former narcotics-squad cop is reluctantly drawn into the investigation of a serial killer's return. Louis Tanner recognizes the ugly work of the Chain Killer, a maniac who dispatches his victims two at a time, welding the corpses together in a grotesque embrace and dumping them into a body of water. Tanner's troubled conscience from a previous case compels him to reunite with his former colleague, Frank Carlucci. Together, they enter the city's notorious red-light district, chasing a vicious drug dealer who forces them even deeper into the underworld — where police are powerless and the foulest criminals live in contempt of the law.
Author Richard Paul Russo twice received the Philip K. Dick Award: in 1989, for his second novel, Subterranean Gallery, and in 2001 for Ship of Fools. This hard-boiled thriller is the first volume of the critically acclaimed Carlucci Trilogy, consisting of Destroying Angel, Carlucci's Edge, and Carlucci's Heart. All three works offer a gripping combination of classic noir mystery and futuristic cyberpunk fiction.