Showing McNally's Puzzle by Lawrence Sanders

 

 

Hiram Gottschalk, owner of the Palm Beach shop Parrots Unlimited, fears for his life. First, he finds a photo of himself and his deceased wife slashed to ribbons; then, a Mass card with his name on it is taped inside of his closet door; now, someone has wrung the neck of his beloved pet bird. In desperation, he turns to McNally & Son for a private investigation.

 

McNally meets with Gottschalk, along with his client’s cursing parrot. McNally wisely ignores the bird’s command to go to hell, but he can’t ignore the fallout when his client is stabbed in his sleep and Gottschalk’s unstable son, Peter, becomes the prime suspect. When more victims turn up, McNally has to puzzle out the motives of a murderer who has just killed two more birds with one stone . . . and is now targeting the dapper detective.