Sharkys Machine
by William Diehl
Category: Fiction

Italy, 1944: A squad of American soldiers on a dangerous secret mission is ambushed and slaughtered . . . and a fortune in gold vanishes. Hong Kong, 1959: An aging American colonel, haunted by his wartime past, is brutally murdered in a luxurious brothel. Atlanta, 1975: The last survivor of the fatal World War II ambush in Italy is executed at point blank range in a parking lot. Blowing away a crazed, gun-wielding drug dealer on a crowded city bus gets police detective Sharky bounced from the narc squad into the dreaded dregs of the department--vice. That's where he stumbles on a high-priced call girl and her pimp who are fleecing rich johns in an even higher-priced blackmail scam. Together with his "machine" of hard-bitten vice squad veterans, Sharky closes in for a big sting. He doesn't count on falling for Domino, his alluring target. Or falling into the middle of the murderous design she's a part of--involving a hot presidential candidate, the shadowy multimillionaire who's backing him, and the ice-cold assassin they're using to wipe out the past . . . before it blows their future to hell. "Every chapter crackles with sex, violence, and corruption." --The Washington Post "Fast-paced, attention-holding, hard-hitting." --Chicago Tribune "A slam-bang ending that should shock the most jaded thriller reader." --The Associated Press