Fall From Grace (The Detective Jane Candiotti Series)

Strangers on BART, San Francisco's subway system, meet and make mayhem in this first novel by television writer/producer Clyde Phillips, who pays off on his debt to Alfred Hitchcock by updating the master and adding a few new twists. When lawyer David Perry blabs to his subway seatmate, a seedy mechanic named Barton Hubble, that he's about to be divorced by his rich wife, Hubble decides to do his new friend a favor by killing the offending wife. But then Perry refuses to acknowledge his share of the drunken bargain, and Hubble becomes a serious threat. There's a bright, attractive cop named Jane Candiotti and several exciting action scenes that take place far below and well above ground—even on the Golden Gate Bridge. —Dick Adler