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Dressed to Kill
THE CAR was hot, and so was the blonde who drove it. A smart shamus like Rusty Forbes should have known better than to hole up with her in a tourist cabin. By the time that little picnic was over, he found himself custodian of a corpse-and on the trail of enough loot to stock a department store.
155 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2007
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About the author
Milton K. Ozaki
42 books2 followersAka Robert O. Saber.
Milton K. Ozaki, born in Racine, Wisconsin from a Japanese father (Jingaro Ozaki, who later changed his name to Frank) and an American mother, Augusta Rathbun, was a journalist, a reporter and a beauty parlor operator (the Monsieur Meltoine beauty salon, in the Gold Coast section of Chicago). He is the author of approximately two dozen popular mid-20th Century detective novels under both his given name and the pseudonym Robert O. Saber, and is considered one of the first American mystery writers of Japanese descent. He died in Sparks, Nevada.
Milton K. Ozaki, born in Racine, Wisconsin from a Japanese father (Jingaro Ozaki, who later changed his name to Frank) and an American mother, Augusta Rathbun, was a journalist, a reporter and a beauty parlor operator (the Monsieur Meltoine beauty salon, in the Gold Coast section of Chicago). He is the author of approximately two dozen popular mid-20th Century detective novels under both his given name and the pseudonym Robert O. Saber, and is considered one of the first American mystery writers of Japanese descent. He died in Sparks, Nevada.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 14, 2022
Milton Ozaki’s Dressed to Kill is a great piece of crime fiction. Russell Forbes is framed for a brutal murder. Picked up by the police, drunk beyond belief, half out of his mind, in bed with a local floozy. Same kind of setup you’d find in a dozen other crime novels, but the difference here is that Ozaki doesn’t open the novel with this scenario. Instead, he takes Forbes and the reader on a merry-go-round of a journey before getting to that point. You see Forbes is one of those private investigators with nothing but time on his hands and nothing in his bank account. In his spare time, he follows up on the list of stolen vehicles, checking for engine numbers with local auto shops, and he follows one prime Cadillac driven by a well-endowed blonde bombshell, Giselle Kent, out into the countryside. He then waits till she runs into a drugstore and absconds with the car, thinking he will get the insurance company’s finder’s fee, and not realizing what a Pandora’s box is opening up even as he convinces the blonde to accompany him to a roadside motel. The opening is expertly set out from the honest unassuming private eye who is just trying to earn food money to the explosive events that put Forbes in the clink.
From there, the plotting gets a bit crazy as Forbes tries to get to the bottom of things and ends up with a warehouse of stolen goods shooting it up with a bunch of thugs and rescuing a damsel in distress from being whipped to death. Where there’s money to be made, there’s always it seems people with their hands out and others willing to double cross and triple cross whoever they are working with. All in all, an easy to read action-packed thrill ride.
From there, the plotting gets a bit crazy as Forbes tries to get to the bottom of things and ends up with a warehouse of stolen goods shooting it up with a bunch of thugs and rescuing a damsel in distress from being whipped to death. Where there’s money to be made, there’s always it seems people with their hands out and others willing to double cross and triple cross whoever they are working with. All in all, an easy to read action-packed thrill ride.
January 27, 2025
Ozaki wasn't on the A-Team, but he was still pretty damned good.
Chandler and Hammett wrote noir stories and novels that transcend the genre. But not everyone can be a great writer, so we must turn to the second-string guys to feed our addiction. And some of them were very good indeed and I rank Ozaki right up there.
The first thing you'll have to get used to is that Ozaki's books aren't set on the West Coast, but in Chicago and in his native Wisconsin. He was born in 1913 to a Japanese father and an American mother. I find that interesting, given the scarcity of Asian-American marriages at that time. You have to wonder what he went through during WWII with the virulently anti-Japanese sentiment in America. He was a journalist who turned to writing mysteries after the war ended. He sometimes published under the name "Robert O. Saber" but never changed his name to a more traditional American one, like many writers at that time. Wonder why?
He wrote 24 shortish (by today's standards) mystery novels. He also operated a classy hair salon - Monsieur Meltoine's Beauty Parlor - on Chicago's Gold Coast and an incarnation of that salon and its owner makes a cameo appearance in this book. DRESSED TO KILL is a 100 page novelette that was published in 1954 and I think it's well worth your time if you like old mysteries. You can get this one for 99 cents or an edition with flashier cover art for $2.69. The print in the cheaper edition is small, but I was able to enlarge it. Other than that, it's a good edition.
Private detective Russell "Rusty" Forbes has a one-man agency, which means he has to hustle for work. By the 1950's automobile ownership had changed from a luxury to a necessity and the increase in cars meant an increase in auto theft. Recovery of stolen vehicles isn't glamorous work, but the fees paid by insurance companies is bread-and-butter for small agencies. And it's a simple, safe way to pick up a few bucks, right?
Well, not when there's the body of a murdered guy in the trunk and a beautiful blonde at the wheel. The Chicago police take a dim view of civilians driving around with corpses and Forbes quickly finds himself facing a murder rap. So, in the best tradition of resourceful P.I.'s, he plunges in to find the murderer and get himself off the hook.
OK, it's not terribly realistic, but Osaki has the writing chops of an old newspaper man and a flair for creating colorful characters. Forbes is hard-boiled, but bright and likable. There are corrupt cops and clean ones, if you can just figure out which is which. There are scam artists of all types, including a bunch running a successful business selling stolen merchandise. Some of it's penny-ante stuff, but when a load of high-end televisions fall off the back of a truck, every crook in Chicago gets interested. One of them gets dead.
It's a insider's look at the symbiotic relationship between Organized Crime and the entertainment industry. Restaurants, cafes, and night clubs are nice places to relax while you're planning the next big score and they can be used to launder the proceeds of your crimes. Beautiful dames bring in customers and sometimes the owner takes a non-professional interest in the girls. Sometimes more than one guy is interested in the same doll. Gangsters don't share well.
It's not Chandler or Hammett, but it's a well-plotted story with unexpected twists and intriguing characters. The dialogue is snappy and entertaining. Ozaki wasn't a genius, but he was a professional writer and he clearly took pride in his work. I enjoyed this book and I'm glad to see his novels being offered in Kindle editions. I'll be getting more of them.
Chandler and Hammett wrote noir stories and novels that transcend the genre. But not everyone can be a great writer, so we must turn to the second-string guys to feed our addiction. And some of them were very good indeed and I rank Ozaki right up there.
The first thing you'll have to get used to is that Ozaki's books aren't set on the West Coast, but in Chicago and in his native Wisconsin. He was born in 1913 to a Japanese father and an American mother. I find that interesting, given the scarcity of Asian-American marriages at that time. You have to wonder what he went through during WWII with the virulently anti-Japanese sentiment in America. He was a journalist who turned to writing mysteries after the war ended. He sometimes published under the name "Robert O. Saber" but never changed his name to a more traditional American one, like many writers at that time. Wonder why?
He wrote 24 shortish (by today's standards) mystery novels. He also operated a classy hair salon - Monsieur Meltoine's Beauty Parlor - on Chicago's Gold Coast and an incarnation of that salon and its owner makes a cameo appearance in this book. DRESSED TO KILL is a 100 page novelette that was published in 1954 and I think it's well worth your time if you like old mysteries. You can get this one for 99 cents or an edition with flashier cover art for $2.69. The print in the cheaper edition is small, but I was able to enlarge it. Other than that, it's a good edition.
Private detective Russell "Rusty" Forbes has a one-man agency, which means he has to hustle for work. By the 1950's automobile ownership had changed from a luxury to a necessity and the increase in cars meant an increase in auto theft. Recovery of stolen vehicles isn't glamorous work, but the fees paid by insurance companies is bread-and-butter for small agencies. And it's a simple, safe way to pick up a few bucks, right?
Well, not when there's the body of a murdered guy in the trunk and a beautiful blonde at the wheel. The Chicago police take a dim view of civilians driving around with corpses and Forbes quickly finds himself facing a murder rap. So, in the best tradition of resourceful P.I.'s, he plunges in to find the murderer and get himself off the hook.
OK, it's not terribly realistic, but Osaki has the writing chops of an old newspaper man and a flair for creating colorful characters. Forbes is hard-boiled, but bright and likable. There are corrupt cops and clean ones, if you can just figure out which is which. There are scam artists of all types, including a bunch running a successful business selling stolen merchandise. Some of it's penny-ante stuff, but when a load of high-end televisions fall off the back of a truck, every crook in Chicago gets interested. One of them gets dead.
It's a insider's look at the symbiotic relationship between Organized Crime and the entertainment industry. Restaurants, cafes, and night clubs are nice places to relax while you're planning the next big score and they can be used to launder the proceeds of your crimes. Beautiful dames bring in customers and sometimes the owner takes a non-professional interest in the girls. Sometimes more than one guy is interested in the same doll. Gangsters don't share well.
It's not Chandler or Hammett, but it's a well-plotted story with unexpected twists and intriguing characters. The dialogue is snappy and entertaining. Ozaki wasn't a genius, but he was a professional writer and he clearly took pride in his work. I enjoyed this book and I'm glad to see his novels being offered in Kindle editions. I'll be getting more of them.
August 22, 2014
This is hilarious suspense thriller.narrator keeps churning out wisecracks in almost every line.This novel will keep you chuckling all the way.This is one of those page turners which you can't put down.
March 19, 2011
This was a lot of fun. Snappy dialog, convoluted plot, double-crosses, secret identity, unconventional motives (stolen drugs? No. Stolen TVs).
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews