Peregrine

High above Manhattan, a peregrine falcon circles over Rockefeller Center, waiting for a signal from the man who trained it, and on the streets below people begin to die. William Bayer's novel introduces Frank Janek, a divorced and burned-out New York homicide detective who fixes up antique accordions when he is off duty. The search for a killer who uses a bird of prey as his weapon leads Janek through a world of call girls, wealthy eccentrics and illicit dealers in rare birds, and toward a falconer with designs on a young woman named Pam. In this story, predator and prey are never quite who they seem. The novel won the 1982 Edgar Award for Best Novel.