Vultures of the Dark

Set in Prohibition-era New York, and written by a Commissioner of the New York Police Department, this detective story was first published in 1924. A business deal involving bales of valuable silk falls apart, a murder is attempted, retribution follows, and Detective Sergeant Roger Warren works to solve a crime that reaches from the under-belly of 'speakeasies' to the heights of New York business and society. The fact that the author worked his way up the ranks of the New York Police Department gives a level of authority unique in crime novels of this period.