J.D. Hawkins / Ice for the Eskimo / W. R. Philbrick

The scene is Boston, in the middle of a bone-chilling fall. J.D. Hawkins, author of mysteries, wheelchair-bound, and the solver of crimes in Shadow Kills, becomes involved in a new case. Two young children are kidnapped—and their father just happens to be the lawyer representing the mother of a slain youth killed by a policeman. The father also happens to be Finian X. Fitzgerald, close friend of Hawkins, who is pressured into dropping the case. With help from J.D. the children are recovered unharmed. But, the private investigator sent to rescue them is murdered, and so begins the real mystery. Following a maze of clues, Hawkins finds himself drawn into the underground world of the police department, the shrouded community of the Catholic Church, and the troubled world of a priest.