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The Third Deadly Sin
The Third Deadly Sin
The Third Deadly Sin
Ebook583 pages9 hours

The Third Deadly Sin

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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New York Times Bestseller: A retired cop hunts for a female serial killer no one would suspect in this “first-rate thriller . . . as good as you can get” (The New York Times).

By day, she’s a middle-aged secretary no one would look at twice. But by night, dressed in a midnight-black wig, a skin-tight dress, and spike heels, she’s hard to miss. Inside her leather shoulder bag are keys, cash, mace, and a Swiss Army knife. She prowls smoky hotel bars for prey. The first victim—a convention guest at an upscale Manhattan hotel—is found with multiple stab wounds to the neck and genitals. By the time retired police detective chief Edward Delaney hears about the case from an old colleague, the Hotel Ripper has already struck twice. Unable to resist the puzzle, Delaney follows the clues and soon realizes he’s looking for a woman. As the grisly slayings continue, seizing the city in a chokehold of panic, Delaney must stop the madwoman before she kills again.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 12, 2013
ISBN9781453298381
The Third Deadly Sin
Author

Lawrence Sanders

Lawrence Sanders, one of America's most popular novelists, was the author of more than thirty-five bestsellers, including the original McNally novels. Vincent Lardo is the author of The Hampton Affair and The Hampton Connection, as well as five McNally novels. He lives on the East End of Long Island.

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Rating: 3.6530610102040817 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    New York City is in a panic. A serial killer is targeting the city's conventioneers, throwing the tourist trade into a tailspin and sparking rumors of another "Son of Sam". The NYPD can't figure it out, so retired police detective Edward X. Delaney is pressed back into service to solve the case. The reader, however, knows from the first pages that the perpetrator is mousy Zoe Kohler, a lonely woman who suffers from a monstrous case of PMS along with the bizarre symptoms of a more obscure disorder. In alternating chapters the police hunt for the killer runs parallel with the narrative of Zoe's downward spiral.The Third Deadly Sin was published in 1981, and the book definitely shows its age. Old-school chauvinist Delaney and his wife debate women's rights as if feminism were a surprising new idea. Zoe's physician chain-smokes cigars in his examining room ("More than once his nurse had plucked a lighted cigar from his fingers as he was about to start a rectal examination," p. 84). The depiction of an Asian character resorts to offensive stereotyping that would not be acceptable today. Despite its datedness, however, the narrative is effective, especially in its final chapter.

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The Third Deadly Sin - Lawrence Sanders

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