The Smooth Face of Evil

Violence was not Terry's style at all.

He found it crude, uncivilized, and unnecessary. He picked up things other ways -- articles left in unlocked cars, the cars themselves, handbags left on chairs or tables. Terry was extremely personable. Discontented middle-aged housewives who took him to their hearts also paid the price -- in tears and in cash. But however careful he was, mistakes were inevitable. His first was pure accident. In a stolen car, he rear-ended a woman driver, beginning a long nightmare that would lead him eventually to be accused of a murder he didn't commit.

After a day paddling about on the waters of the old gravel pit, two boys pull into the side to eat and spot the pale white hand of a dead man. Terry Brett, a personable con-man who has "befriended" Alice Armitage - an elderly and lonely widow - finds himself accused of a murder he did not commit.