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HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW by Blair S. Walker

HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW

by Blair S. Walker

Pub Date: April 6th, 1999
ISBN: 0-380-97421-5
Publisher: Avon/HarperCollins

Baltimore Herald assistant editor Darryl Billups isn’t much to look at, but he must have something that turns heads. His girlfriend Yolanda’s wild-thing twin LaToya wants to bed down with him even while Yolanda’s asleep in the next room. And after his article on the Confederate flag killer—a Jerry Springer—inspired lunatic who’s been leaving young black professionals dead in their bathtubs with Confederate flag decals stuck on their heads but not a mark of violence to indicate how they died—he catches the killer’s eye too. Things heat up rapidly after the killer, vacationing in Atlanta till the heat dies down, gets carried away and on the spur of the moment offs local psychiatrist Melvin Hamilton—and after Darryl, catching a hot tip and what must be the fastest plane on the planet, arrives in Atlanta before the police have removed Dr. Hamilton’s corpse from his sunken tub, only to find himself hotly pursued by the killer. Walker, paring away the endless subplots that weighed down Darryl’s debut (Up Jumped the Devil, 1997), keeps the pot boiling smartly, so that even though Darryl has time to appear in some unaccustomed roles—as a solitary investigator bereft of his cop buddy Det. Philip Gardner, as a suspect in a sexual harassment complaint, as a serial killer’s latest target—tension mounts steadily till the inevitable payoff. Lightweight, everywhere unbelievable, but still diverting.