DETECTIVE  by   Arthur Hailey


Review #27
Main Character: Detective Malcolm Ainslie

Miami Police Department Detective Malcolm Ainslie is almost out the bureau door when he takes one last call. It's the chaplain at Raiford Prison. Elroy Doil, a convicted serial killer awaiting execution, wants Ainslie, a former Catholic priest, to hear his final confession. Doil admits to another 10 murders, but he insists he didn't kill City Commissioner Gustav Ernst and his wife. In spite of Doil's obvious madness, Ainslie believes him and sets about to answer the obvious question: If not Doil, who? The investigation has to start with surviving daughter, Cynthia Ernst, Ainslie's former lover and now a Commissioner herself.

This thriller sweeps readers into a series of gory murders of older married couples in south Florida, the twisted mind of the killer, the intramural politics of the Miami PD and the truly horrible childhood abuse of a major character. Along the way, Hailey finds time for ample musing on the death penalty, Catholicism and the grand jury system

It has been many years since I read an Arthur Hailey novel. I thought I had read them all…The Evening News, Airport, Hotel, Final Diagnosis, Wheels, The Moneychanger, etc. However, while trolling through the library web site, I found a couple I had not read. This is one of them. Hailey is as wonderful a writer as he ever was. You will enjoy this book!