Hip-Deep in Alligators — Robert Campbell

When the bosses of Chicago's Democratic Party Machine send precinct captain Jimmy Flannery underground to inspect the city's sewers, the idea is to teach him to keep his nose out of other people's business. But Flannery figures what goes on in his ward is his business. And when he fishes a body that's been chewed in half by a crocodile out of the city's waste, Flannery smells a rat. Tracking the scent all the way from a pigeon-pinching ring to first-degree murder, Flannery flushes out the stink of political corruption - and he finds he's going to need all his street smarts and the highest power connections he's got to keep himself from going under..