Deedee was a tempting, treacherous seventeen-year-old out for as much as she could get. All she had going for her was her body, but she used it like a pro and so far the rewards had been satisfying. But when she tried to pin a vice rap on Mike Shayne, he exploded, giving a lot of people more than they'd bargained for. Sex with whips just wasn't Mike's style--and he was angry enough to strip open a whole dirty case of blackmail, industrial espionage and murder to prove it!
Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 - February 4, 1977), primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Mike Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write. Dresser wrote non-series mysteries, westerns and romances under the names
This is one of the later Halliday mysteries (1967) that doesn't seem as though he wrote it. That's because the premise seems completely out of character for PI Michael Shayne.
Shayne has been hired by a businessman to see who stole a large document that features a new type of paint--yeah, that's not exactly enticing. Shayne is told all the information about the case during a morning duck hunt--I seriously doubt that Shayne would ever participate in such a sport. While getting the details, one of the suspects is shot in the face by the business's owner.
From here the case becomes more in line with the Shayne whose exploits I've followed: there's a femme fatale, a no-good son, another PI who's out of his league, a murder attempt, murky business south of the border, and a bad vice cop.
I enjoyed parts of this book, but not as a whole. The conclusion came off as farfetched.
Одинокий герой — образец американской культуры, которому никогда не утратить актуальности. Такие герои рождались на американском континенте всегда, стоило на него ступить европейцу. Немудрено, что и в середине XX века находились люди, способные взвалить на свои плечи тяжесть мира. Так ли оно было, или это отражение художественных изысканий? Разговор о том заранее бесплотен, лучше видеть наглядное представление об одиночках, боровшихся за справедливость и находивших правильное решение для разрешения самой щекотливой ситуации.