Destroying Angel

"Truly gripping . . . a lot more realistic than most near-future SF, as well as being just plain better written than most of it." — Science Fiction Chronicle

In the crumbling San Francisco of tomorrow, a former narcotics-squad cop is reluctantly drawn into the investigation of a serial killer's return. Louis Tanner recognizes the ugly work of the Chain Killer, a maniac who dispatches his victims two at a time, welding the corpses together in a grotesque embrace and dumping them into a body of water. Tanner's troubled conscience from a previous case compels him to reunite with his former colleague, Frank Carlucci. Together, they enter the city's notorious red-light district, chasing a vicious drug dealer who forces them even deeper into the underworld — where police are powerless and the foulest criminals live in contempt of the law.
Author Richard Paul Russo twice received the Philip K. Dick Award: in 1989, for his second novel, Subterranean Gallery, and in 2001 for Ship of Fools. This hard-boiled thriller is the first volume of the critically acclaimed Carlucci Trilogy, consisting of Destroying Angel, Carlucci's Edge, and Carlucci's Heart. All three works offer a gripping combination of classic noir mystery and futuristic cyberpunk fiction.

American science-fiction author Richard Paul Russo twice received the Philip K. Dick Award: in 1989, for his second novel, Subterranean Gallery, and in 2001 for Ship of Fools. His critically acclaimed Carlucci Trilogy, consisting of Destroying Angel, Carlucci's Edge, and Carlucci's Heart, were praised by Science Fiction Chronicle as "Truly gripping . . . a lot more realistic than most near-future SF, as well as being just plain better written than most of it."