Kill-Box

A detective tail on a duplicitous spouse leads to murder, explosive secrets, and atomic-age paranoia in 1950s Manhattan.   Lawrence Lariar was one the most popular cartoonists of the twentieth century. But from the 1940s through the 1960s, he also crafted a line of lean and mean detective and mystery novels under his own name as well as the pseudonyms Michael Stark, Adam Knight, Michael Lawrence, and Marston La France. Lariar now gets his due as a leading artist in hardboiled crime fiction.   It sounds like a routine gig for private eye Steve Ericson. Dolly DePereyra has asked him to keep an eye on her cheating husband, Michael, on the overnight Chicago-to-New York Express. By the time the train rolls into Grand Central the case has already gone off the rails: Michael is dead, causes unknown. And with Dolly being eyeballed by the cops, she now needs Ericson to clear her name—which wasn't all that untarnished to begin with.   As Ericson's investigation begins, he realizes that Michael, indeed, had a story. Low-profile hotel trysts and bombshell blondes come with the territory. But a high-profile conference with four atomic scientists? That's a twist Ericson doesn't see coming. Neither is the way Michael died. Or why. Or just how radioactive this case is going to get.