Written by Evan Hunter using the name Ed McBain, the book was inspired by a television show he greatly admired, Dragnet.

Bochco set his gritty police drama in a precinct house in a fictional city much as McBain did in Cop Hater.

As Steve Carella and his colleagues from the 87th Precinct are looking for their friend's killer, they have no idea that this is just the beginning of a series of police murders.

Carella reveals that - due to the evidence collected from Bush's murder - the police now knows certain attributes of the killer, i.e. weight, profession, and build.

After making sure Teddy is okay, Carella interrogates the man, finding out that his name is Paul Mercer and that he was the murderer of all three cops.

After further interrogation it is discovered that Alice Bush was behind the whole plot; she had convinced a previously unknown man named Paul Mercer to commit the murders.

[3] In order of appearance The New York Times called the book "a tough, sexy novel with inherent honesty and decency.