Lt. James Reardon is a good cop, aggressive, hard working. He likes his job and knows when to follow his hunches. But in the case of Ralph Crocker, maybe Reardon’s hunch is just the aggravated imagination of a guy who’s had a fight with his best girl. Or it may have been his excuse for getting involved in a traffic case when he had no business getting involved. Crocker killed a man with his car, an open and shut case of accidental death. He insisted that the victim stepped out of the night on a poorly lit, deserted waterfront street and right in front of his 1940 Buick. The car’s bumper, the skid marks — everything checked by the APB Squad confirmed Crocker’s story. Reardon couldn’t leave it alone. Something kept bugging him. With the help of Sergeant Dondero, he began to turn up some unexplained little details, not enough to prove anything but enough to put a young Lieutenant out on a limb for bending regulations. All Reardon knew for sure was that an automobile was a weapon anyone could license and use at will. When Reardon’s shrewd sleuthing finally pays off, a desperate criminal makes a break for freedom while the skillfully directed forces of the San Francisco police close in, in a wild careening chase — a chase that becomes amphibious in the fogbound harbor. REARDON is a police procedural novel of excitement and adventure — all played out against the glamorous back-ground of the Golden Gate City

Tough and aggressive, short-tempered and quick-thinking — Lt. Jim Reardon was one of San Francisco’s best cops. And Robert L. Pike, the creator of Bullitt, has also made him one of the most exciting and resourceful heroes currently tracking down criminals in police procedural novels. Reardon’s new case begins with the murder of a prominent gangster in a waterfront bar. Syndicate killings are nothing new, but this one was different: it was as big a surprise to the mob as it was to the Homicide Division. Then another leading figure in Bay Area organized crime fell — or was pushed — out the window of his 15th-floor apartment, and it began to look as though someone was out to get all four men on Captain Tower’s personal “Most Wanted” list. The list had been widely publicized, there were dozens of people with motive and opportunity, and in each case, the killer left plenty of witnesses and clues. That was precisely Reardon’s problem: too many clues, too many suspects, and too little real information. There was a mysterious girl asking directions in an unlikely neighborhood, an angry madam, a stunning female impersonator, and a girl drinking an improbable cocktail called a “Gremlin’s Grampa.” Could they all be the same person? Was she (or he) the murderer, an accomplice, or just another blind alley? Unravelling the crime involves Reardon’s usual partner, Sergeant Dondero, his regular girl, Jan Conroy, and a spectacular chase along San Franciscos streets and expressways, when Reardon finally realizes he has had the crucial details all the time — but may have taken too long to put them together