Doggerel for Dead Whores: A Thomas Haftmann Novel

“I’m a long-time fan of the Thomas Haftmann novels. I like nothing better than curling up with a good p.i. novel, especially one with a gritty protagonist who is an ex-cop with flaws, financially strapped, drinks a little too much, still dealing with a divorce, but refusing to let any of that to get in the way of him bringing in the bad guy … one way or another.”
- H.L. Osterman, Short Changed and Walter the Weirdo

Cleveland homicide had access to their profiling apparatus as early as September eighty-eight, but didn’t start looking for similarities until ninety-three. By then, seventeen women had turned up as dead bodies found. Fifteen in vacant lots on the East Side. All but two were black females between fourteen and forty-one. More than half were found nude. Twelve had been beaten severely in the face and head. Nearly all had drug problems or arrests, many were active street hookers. Cleveland homicide found no connections, no similarities besides the obvious. Forensics was a dead end in every case. But things were about to change … Thomas Haftmann, a former cop, now a private eye, was on the case.

Robb White lives in Northeastern Ohio close to the house where he grew up. Many of his crime stories feature private investigator Thomas Haftmann, the protagonist of two earlier novels: Haftmann’s Rules (2011) and Saraband for a Runaway (2013). A third novel, When You Run with Wolves, was published in 2015. He has a collection of short stories titled Out of Breath and Other Stories (2013) that mixes mainstream and crime fiction. Until he retired from college teaching this year, White wrote book reviews and conducted interviews for the print magazine Boxing World.