City for Ransom

McNulty; Graveyards of Chicago by Matt Hucke and Ursula Bielski; Chicago’s Famous Buildings by Franz Schutze and Kevin Harrington; Chicago—A Pictorial History by Herman Kogan and Lloyd Wendt; Elmer McCurdy—The Misadventures in Life and Af-terlife of an American Outlaw by Mark Svenold; Forever Open, Clear and Free by Lois Wille; Central Michigan Avenue by Ellen Christensen; Man and the Beast Within by Benjamin Walker, and America by Alastair Cooke.

However, the book that sparked the initial idea for City for Ransom goes way back to the 80s for me (it’s been percolating for a long time). This title Dean R. Koontz insisted I read: Jurgen Thorwald’s Century of the Detective. Even then Inspector Alastair Ransom was roaming about inside my head looking for a way out while I spent decades with Jes-sica Coran in my popular Instinct Series and Lucas Stonecoat in my Edge Series.

Thanks also to the wonderful team at Avon/HarperCollins, especially copyeditor and detail-conscious Patrice

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

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Silverstein; May Chen, who handled me with grace; and brave young editor Lyssa Keusch, who proved the only person in all the publishing world to see the potential of the rough, early stages of City, and without whom Ransom would never have found his way out of this author’s mineshaft (head), so that now this “gem of the prairie” named Alastair has finally come into the gaslight, proudly riding in a hansom cab, his scrimshaw wolf’s-head cane tapping to the beat of hooves.

About the Author

R O B E R T W. W A L K E R

Master of suspense and bone-chilling terror, Robert W. Walker, a graduate of Northwestern University, has penned forty-two novels and has taught language and writing for over twenty-five years. Having grown up in the Windy City and having been born in the shadow of Shiloh Battlefield, near Corinth, Mississippi, Robert has two writing traditions to uphold—the Chicago one and the Southern one—all of which makes him uniquely suited to write City for Ransom and its sequels, which he is currently working on.

Rob has written in many genres, including historical, mystery, YA, and horror under four frightful personalities. Walker saw Final Edge, Grave Instinct, and Absolute Instinct published in 2004. The author lives in Chicago where, between books, he enjoys all that the city has to offer. You’re invited to write Rob at www.RobertWWalker.com Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Advance Praise for

CITY FOR RANSOM

“Walker’s masterful prose cuts like a garrote, transporting us with panache and style into an historical thriller with teeth.

Ransom’s the best new hero in period fiction.”

JA Konrath, author of Whiskey Sour & Bloody Mary

“Walker’s taken on Caleb Carr’s territory, with a superb haunted protagonist with a graveyard on his back. Ransom your soul for this one; it’s that mesmerizing.”

Ken Bruen, Macavity Award Winner for The Killing of the Tinkers

“Gut-wrenchingly suspenseful, luridly atmospheric, and utterly plausible, Walker’s creation is a brilliant mix of Conan Doyle, Erik Larson, and Wes Craven. You’ll be shocked, stunned, beaten to hell, and riveted to the peerless quality of this page-turner.” Jay Bonansinga, author of Frozen and The Sinking of Eastland

“City is crime noir at its finest.”

David Ellis, Edgar® Winner, author of In the Company of Liars

“City is . . . deep, surprising . . . vivid and passionate.”

Barbara D’Amato, author of Death of a Thousand Cats

“Inspector Alastair Ransom’s Chicago is brutal and violent, cloaking mysteries and intrigues in a facade of propriety as spectral and illusory as the grand and gleaming buildings of the vanished ‘White City.’ ” Richard Lindberg, author of Chicago by Gaslight: A History of Chicago’s Netherworld, 1880–1920

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

CITY FOR RANSOM. Copyright © 2006 by Robert W.

Walker. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

ISBN 978-0-06-178797-3