Archibald Sims, Charleston's premier detective, has a mansion on 
The Battery and a $1-a-year job as a homicide detective. What starts 
as a routine investigation quickly sends him on the trail of a series of 
bizarre murders in the Lowcountry. At the heart of the case is a 
cunning, perverse loner who will stop at nothing in his quest for the 
ultimate revenge. The bodies are piling up fast, and this investigation 
will test Sims like no other. As he races to stop the killer, he 
discovers a horrible truth—his girlfriend and his young son are 
targets too.

Comments on Greer's first four novels:
 
Slammer: "The best first novel to come out of the South since 
Deliverance."—The New Republic

Halloween: "Lush and sinister . . .  truly fine."—Los Angeles 
Herald Examiner

Time Loves a Hero: "Finally, Greer produces some of the finest 
writing this side of John Updike."—New Woman

The Loss of Heaven: "A fascinating drama from a wonderful 
writer."—Library Journal

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BEN GREER, a native of South Carolina, published his first book of 
fiction at the age of twenty-six. Slammer, a novel based upon his 
experiences in a maximum security prison, received rave reviews, 
and his subsequent three novels were extensively reviewed in the 
United States and Canada. Currently Greer teaches at the University 
of South Carolina and is at work on his second Archibald Sims novel.



What people are saying about this book

"Archibald Sims has got to be one of the most intriguing detectives 
since Sherlock Holmes. Get this: he is a Rhodes Scholar, a great 
cook, a doting father, a widower enamored of College of Charleston 
girls, and a passionate (and inept) grower of organic vegetables. He 
does have a dark side, but you'll have to read to find out about that 
struggle. Murder in the Holy City scares you on one page and makes 
you laugh on the other."—William Price Fox