Menaced Assassin (45 page)

Ardrey, Robert.
African Genesis
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Bakker, Robert T., Ph.D.
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Eldredge, Niles.
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. New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1991.

Fisher, Helen E., Ph.D.
Anatomy of Love: The Natural History of Monogamy, Adultery, and Divorce
. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1992.

Ghiglieri, Michael P.
East of the Mountains of the Moon
. New York: The Free Press, 1988.

Gould, Stephen Jay.
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1989.

The Holy Bible (King James Version). Nashville, Tenn.: The Gideons International, 1967.

Howells, William.
Getting Here: The Story of Human Evolution
. Washington, D.C.: The Compass Press, 1993.

Jacobs, Louis, Ph.D.
Quest for the African Dinosaurs
. New York: Villard Books, 1993.

Johanson, Donald; Johanson, Lenora; and Edgar, Blake.
Ancestors: In Search of Human Origins
. New York: Villard Books, 1994.

Raup, David M.
Extinction—Bad Genes or Bad Luck?
New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1991.

Russell, Dale A.
The Dinosaurs of North America
. Minocqua, Wis.: North Word Press, Inc. 1989.

Sagan, Carl, and Druyan, Ann.
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. New York: Random House, 1992.

Schick, Kathy D., and Toth, Nicholas.
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*   *   *

Also I must acknowledge:

Foremost, and forever, my wife, Dori, lover, friend, unequaled editor, a remarkable woman who has puzzled with me over the nature of man for the twenty years our lives have been intertwined.

Robert Ardrey, whose
African Genesis
dragged me into the maze of man’s origins and nature, and the countless other writers and scientists and naturalists, not cited above, who work in a bewildering array of disciplines and have been my guides through the labyrinth for over thirty years.

Jamie Frazier-Page, for invaluable information on weapons, ammunition, and the lethal effects of gunshot. Again, the expertise is his, the errors are mine.

Bill Malloy, my editor at Mysterious Press, who fought for this novel’s place on the fall list despite the fact that I was unconscionably late in delivering it.

Finally, Henry Morrison and Danny Baror, my agents, who have hounded me over the years to be the best novelist I can be, and who understand the necessity of a living wage for writers daily facing their own mortality on the blank page.

Joe Gores

San Anselmo

May 20, 1994

MENACED ASSASSIN

I
t began with the murder of a beautiful woman, the adulterous wife of a mild-mannered professor. Then a corrupt cop was gunned down in a phone booth. After that, the killer who called himself Raptor moved through a list of players, playboys, and mobsters from Palm Springs to Minnesota. With each hit came a phone call to San Francisco organized crime investigator Dante Stagnoro, and a disguised, taunting voice daring Stagnoro to stop him. Raptor is a killer like no other Stagnoro has ever pursued. And the final truth of his death trip—a truth about man, nature, and God—will not be revealed until the last victim is claimed.

“TALK ABOUT THRILLERS… A MOST UNUSUAL COMBINATION OF ENTERTAINMENT AND PROVOCATION.”

—Charles Champlin,
Los Angeles Times

“A TALE OF REVENGE AND INTRIGUE.… ANOTHER TERRIFIC YARN FROM ONE OF THE GENRE’S MOST DEPENDABLE STORYTELLERS.”

—
Chicago Tribune

CHOSEN BY CHARLES CHAMPLIN OF THE
LOS ANGELES TIMES
AS ONE OF THE TEN BEST CRIME FICTION WORKS OF THE YEAR

J
OE
G
ORES
was a San Francisco private detective before he became an award-winning screenwriter and author. The creator of the famous DKA detective agency series, Gores lives and writes in northern California.