Ah, eu conheço esse! O livro que você quer é, Tempo quente na cidade velha , por Mike McQuay. É o primeiro de uma série de 4 livros sobre Mathew Swain, detetive particular do século 21.
A série Mathew Swain - Hot Time in Old Town (1981), When Trouble Beckons (1981), O Show Mais Mortífero na Cidade (1982) e The Odds is Murder (1983) - deriva dos trabalhos de Raymond Chandler (1888). -1959) e sucessores diretos de Chandler. À medida que a série se desenvolve, Swain combate a corrupção primeiro na Terra, depois na Lua e depois na Terra novamente, encontrando sempre alvos adequados nas organizações que dominam a sociedade.
Aqui estão alguns trechos de Hot Time na Cidade Velha :
"Venitas Boulevard was a carnival as I hummed my bullet through its misty innards. Midday whores, young ones who had to look good in the light of day, roamed the jungle paths looking for lunch money. Lean, tall studs in color-changing tunics and street-parade hair red as West Texas mud, prowled like panthers; their heads set firm, and their eyes ever watchful. Pack hunting brown cubs with black, tangled manes and guts full of government dope leaned against the hulking ruins of dead brownstones and called with primal elegance to those unfortunate enough to be passing by. It was Tuesday—garbage day."
e:
"He lives in Old Town. He has a sort of underground railroad to help the crazies get out of there."
"You mean, he smuggles mutants into the city?"
"Interesting world, isn't it?"
"How?"
"The ones who look . . . normal. The ones who can pass. He gets them new identities, or pays people to raise the children as their own. We help on the transportation end sometimes.''