The Ninth Man (A Dick Hardesty Mystery, #2)

Dick Hardesty is hired to investigate the mysterious death of a client's lover. The police assume the death is drug related. In the course of his investigation Dick learns of eight similar deaths, all seemingly unrelated. The victims had nothing in common other than being gay, and all dying the same way. The police, to whom the deaths of "perverts" means very little, conclude that a serial killer is randomly killing gays, but Dick disagrees and believes that what tied the men together will lead to their killer.