From The San Francisco Examiner.
McEachin police procedural is a very dark, very tense look at the life of a Los Angeles police lieutenant.

Wyatt W. McKnight has been on the LOs Angeles police force for 28 years and has only 13 days to go before he retires. McKnight was not a well-liked policeman. He was not known for keeping his wiews to himself. Most of the whites in his division considered him a racist. Most of the blacks thought he was aloof. He was neither. He was a veteran of the dark streets of Los Angeles, and he was therefore angry.

The last eight years McKnight has worked narcotics. He especially gets angry when racist Capt. Ault pulls him off this current investigation to check into the murder of vacationing Det. Sgt. Verneay LeCoultre, one of the department's lowlife -- a drunk, a junkie and probably on the take.

LeCoultre first had been attacked by a dog, escaped in his car, been shot and then crashed the car. Now McKnight must trace LeCoultre's final days. Eventually, an Englishwoman starts calling and leaving messages. McKNight learns the Englishwoman is named Leslie Van Horn. He tracks her down, but before he can arrest her, she shoots him up with pure heroin from California-grown poppies. By the time he is found, his mind is practically gone, and for a year he stumbles in and out of hospitals and drug rehab. Then he heads for England to find Leslie and his future, and the past he early remembers.

"The Heroin Factor" is a very original tale, full of anger and yet full of hope. It is not an easy read because much of the plot-line is very dusturbing. The descriptions of heroin addiction are gutwrenching and vivid.

An actor who started in the 1970s detective series "Tenafly," McEachin has successfully changed career directions.