The Black Marble

In this novel, Joseph Wambaugh presents a major surprise: a tale in which crime is secondary to love, and dogs are sometimes more important than people. For here is the strange world of dog shows, the stranger story of a dognapping extortion scheme, and, right in the middle of it all, the most unusual of love stories. The story of a cop--a burned-out homicide detective wrapped around a Smith & Wesson .38 and a vodka bottle; and his partner--twice divorced, nursing a grudge against men, and obsessed by the temptation of love An explosion of chrysanthemums, candlelight, Oriental carpets, Byzantine eyes.