title: Hal's Own Murder Case
author:  Lee Martin 
description: The fifth case featuring indomitable Fort Worth police detective Deb Ralston is a winner. Martin's ( Death Warmed Over ) hallmark continues to be a fast-paced story, enhanced by snappy prose abounding with evocative details. On medical leave during the last month of her pregnancy, Deb, the mother of three adopted children, discovers that her teenage son, Hal, and his girfriend, Lorie, have hitchhiked to New Mexico for their spring break. Before Deb can locate the adventurers and bring them home, her husband, Harry, confined to the hospital with a broken leg, informs her that Hal is being held in a Las Vegas jail under suspicion of murder. Deb learns from Chief Alberto Salazar that a dazed Hal, with blood on his hands and clothes, was spotted wandering around the victim, who was in Lorie's sleeping bag. But Lorie has disappeared. And, the murder weapon is Harry's hunting knife. Deb joins forces with Salazar to find the real killer and the missing girl. Martin's police procedurals are distinguished by her thoroughly believable and refreshingly different heroine. <br />Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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  * * *
  
  # Strip For Violence
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Ed Lacy
  
  
  This page formatted 2005 Munsey's.
  
  
  http://www.munseys.com
  
  BOOK ONE
  
  
  BOOK TWO
  
  
  BOOK THREE
  
  
  BOOK FOUR
  
  
  BOOK FIVE
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  ![](resources/stripviol_0.jpg)
  
  She was an expensive call girl and spending a night with her came
  
  
  high. But he never figured on a price as high as murder.
  
  
  The photograph did justice to her generous statistics. Any private
  
  
  eye would enjoy tracking her down, and Hal Darling was no exception.
  
  
  Her name was Marion Lodge. She'd put her impressive body to good use
  
  
  as a call girl before she'd dropped out of sight almost a year before.
  
  
  Hal was being paid a fortune to find her.
  
  
  But someone else was also looking for Marion—with a knife. Hal had
  
  
  to get her fast, or the killer would strike first.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### BOOK ONE
  
  
  
  
  
    
  I
  
  
    
  “Whatcha looking for, Tiny, a bruise?” This was said by a big joker,
  
  
  about two hundred pounds of lard-ass, and trying so hard 