Los Angeles, 1950 Red crosscurrents: the Commie Scare and a string of brutal mutilation killings. Gangland intrigue and Hollywood sleaze. Three cops caught within a hellish web of ambition, perversion, and deceit. Danny Upshaw can be a Sheriff’s deputy trapped with a bunch of snuffs no one cares about; they’re his chance to create his name as a cop…also to sate his darkest curiosities. Mal Considine is certainly D.A.’s Bureau brass. He’s climbing for the Red Scare bandwagon to progress his career and to gain guardianship of his followed son, a child he saved from your horror of postwar European countries. Buzz Meeks-bagman, ex-Narco goon, and pimp for Howard Hughes-is fighting communism for the money. All three men have purchased seat tickets to a problem. (100,000 terms)