Murder Among Children

Donald E. Westlake

Jun 2013 · The Mitchell Tobin Mysteries Book 2 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

When some West Village hippie kids get mixed up with the mob, the results are murder—and ex-cop Mitch Tobin tries to clean up the mess.
 On the outskirts of Greenwich Village, among a wasteland of warehouses and tenements, a group of young people are opening a coffee shop. They are idealistic, giddy, and beautiful—the picture of 1960s youth—but their optimism cannot last. When a corrupt detective comes around demanding regular bribes, one of the young hippies, Robin Kennely, asks for help from a distant relative, the honest but fallen former cop Mitchell Tobin. When Tobin visits the coffee shop for the first time, he finds Robin in a state of shock, clutching a knife and covered in blood.
Two corpses lie upstairs. It seems impossible that anyone but Robin could have killed them, but for the sake of a group of children whose lives are so much brighter than his own, Tobin attempts to prove otherwise.

About the author

DIVDonald E. Westlake (1933–2008) was one of the most prolific and talented authors of American crime fiction. He began his career in the late 1950s, churning out novels for pulp houses—often writing as many as four novels a year under various pseudonyms—but soon began publishing under his own name. His most well-known characters were John Dortmunder, an unlucky thief, and a ruthless criminal named Parker. His writing earned him three Edgars and a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America. /div
Westlake’s cinematic prose and brisk dialogue made his novels attractive to Hollywood, and several motion pictures were made from his books, with stars such as Lee Marvin and Mel Gibson. Westlake wrote several screenplays himself, receiving an Academy Award nomination for his adaptation of The Grifters, Jim Thompson’s noir classic.