the Snow Rattlers Author:Shepard Rifkin Flaps of Dust jacket: Snow Rattler (Croatalus atros niveus). U.S. Southwest. A rattlesnake with a snow habitat. A completely imaginary subspecies which sometimes exists. — A Damian McQuaid, the street-smart New York City homicide detective, is back, this time tracking down a killer on a vast Navajo reservation where the toughest big city cop ... more »is no better than a tenderfoot
The trail starts in a private museum, located on the top floor of the most expensive house on one of the classiest blocks in New York. The museum guard is found dead, with a five-foot Navajo spear through his heart and another spear thrust angrily into the floor between his legs. The five most valuable pieces in the museum--four objects of Indian art and one original copy of the Declaration of Independence--are missing. McQuaid needs only one look at the scene to realize that this is not just another art-world rip-off.
McQuaid convinces his lieutenant that the killer is in New Mexico, not on Madison Avenue. The NYPD gives him only five days' leave to tie up the case. But between hostile local police and suspicious Navajos, it's all he can do to stay alive even that long. McQuaid is angry but determined. Then one night, on an icy mountain road, he meets the snow rattlers, and his anger is suddenly replaced by a new emotion--terror.
Shepard Rifkin, who introduced readers to his wry, quick-tempered hero in McQuaid, has plotted a new and intriguing case--taut, often funny, and puzzling to the end.« less