Little Girl Lost

John Blake #1

by Richard Aleas

Miranda Sugarman was supposed to be in the Midwest, working as an eye doctor. So how did she wind up shot to death on the roof of New York s seediest strip club? It s up to detective John Blake to uncover his ex-girlfriend s secret life as a striptease queen. But the deeper he digs, the darker the secrets he uncovers, until a shattering face-off in an East Village tenement changes his life forever.
First time in paperback--a stunning debut novel from an author whose stories have been selected for BEST MYSTERY STORIES OF THE YEAR and THE YEAR S BEST HORROR STORIES, as well as short-listed for the Shamus Award by the Private Eye Writers of America.

Genres: Mystery, Crime, Fiction, Noir, Pulp, Mystery Thriller, Hard Boiled

221 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2004

About the author

Richard Aleas is a pen name of Charles Ardai.

Reviews

[Delee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a lot of noir mysteries in the past- I found the ones I read and remembered were rather one sided. The men were the stars of the show- the woman secondary characters either there as victims to be knocked around or vixens to be loathed. But after reading a few female authored noir crime books recently- I decided to venture out and read one written by a man and I was more than pleasantly surprised...



Detective John Blake opens the Daily News and sees a picture of his first love and and high school sweet-heart -Miranda Sugarman. The last time he saw Miranda 10 years ago- she was off to college in Los Alamos with dreams of being a Ophthalmologist, but looking at the day's paper the headline above her photo clearly reads "Stripper Murdered".



Miranda's body was found on the roof of a sleazy strip club where she worked as a dancer- shot twice in the face on New Years Eve. How does a beautiful and intelligent young girl go from med student to dead stripper, and who would want to kill her?



John wants and needs to know- and starts delving into the dark world that Miranda became a part of. With the help of his boss -Leo- a retired police officer turned P.I. and a dancer named -Rachel/Susan- they start uncovering the mystery of Miranda's past and why someone would kill to keep her secrets hidden.



LITTLE GIRL LOST is the first of two books featuring P.I John Blake, and even though it is hard to imagine- I have heard the second one- Songs of Innocence is even better!

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Posted at Shelf Inflicted

Little Girl Lost begins with private investigator John Blake scanning the headlines and learning of the brutal death of his high-school sweetheart, Miranda Sugarman, who was most recently working as a stripper. When they were in high school 10 years ago, she had ambitions of attending college in Los Alamos and eventually working as an ophthalmologist.

John Blake is young and idealistic, a refreshing change from the traditional hard-boiled, world-weary, cynical older detectives so prevalent in this genre. His youthful and clean-cut looks are out of place in the violent, sordid and grimy urban environment he has to work in. John encounters a lot of unpleasant characters while he is investigating this case, but he also has help from some good people, his boss, Leo, who is a former cop, and Susan, a stripper who knew Miranda and demonstrates a strong aptitude for detective work.

This was a very well-written, suspenseful, and atmospheric crime thriller. Some of the clues were a little too heavy-handed, making it relatively easy for me to figure out who the murderer was, but I enjoyed revisiting the city I grew up in, the characters, the situations, and John’s strong sense of justice and deep feelings for the woman he once loved.

This is the first Hard Case Crime book I read, and I look forward to more.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

P.I. John Blake's childhood girlfriend, Miranda Sugarman, is found dead on top of a strip club. John follows her backtrail from her enrollment in medical school to a relationship with another woman, to a career touring the strip club circuit and a million dollar robbery. Only, things aren't as they seem at first glance.

I hate to admit it since I was prepared to write off Richard Aleas/Charles Ardai as a phony before I read his stuff but the man knows how to turn out a paperback original. The story had plenty of twists and turns and I only figured out what was really going on a few pages ahead of Blake. Great stuff.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, Little Girl Lost, is a terrific pulpy adventure. John and Miranda were high school sweethearts. The night before graduation they finally went all the way. She was his first love. Miranda went off
to college, intending to start a pre-med program and eventually become an ophthalmologist. Ten years have gone by and they lost track of each other as often happens.

John is now 29. He is a private eye,working out of a two- man outfit with an excop for a partner. John sees her high school yearbook photo in the newspaper. She's been found dead on the rooftop of a strip club with two hollow point bullets in her skull. John makes it his mission to bring her killer to justice.

The action never stops in this book as baby faced John bounces from strip clubs to drug lords trying to find the answers to who killed Miranda and how she ended up where she did ten years later. Along the way, he's beaten and charged with murder and consorts with all kinds of lowlife scum.
It doesn't matter if you can solve the mystery before the end. In this case, the journey is what's important.

[Ayz · Rating 4 out of 5]

oof. what a great ending. much worth the read.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

★★★1/2

Richard Aleas's debut novel is a hard-boiled NY detective tale in the vein of Block's Scudder series but featuring one of the worst detectives out there. Seriously, it was kind of hilarious how this guy just couldn't get it together! He seemed to fail at even simple detective decision-making. But ultimately I think that was part of the point.

Our hero, John Blake is one half of a tiny detective agency and he is obsessed with solving the murder of his old high school sweetheart, a girl who went from pre-med studies to shaking her ass in a grimy titty bar called the Sin Factory. The story and its turns kept me fairly engaged throughout and Aleas keeps it all going at a smooth pace. But as a whole, the book never lived up to its potential, mostly due to the weak presentation of Blake's motivations. Despite a few flashbacks, I never really felt the connection between Blake and his deceased ex, a connection that's supposed to fuel Blake's dogged determination. If I really felt his emotional connection to Miranda, it could've made the events through the book and its ending much more affecting. But I still enjoyed it and it's another solid Hard Case Crime book!

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Little Girl Lost was a lot better than I expected. Very good actually, maybe a 4.678912 stars good, or maybe just a 4.678347, one of those two numbers is how good this book was, but since it's not a 5.00 or even a 4.9734567966345 or higher I can't give it five stars, not in good faith at least. I take my reviewing very seriously, as serious as a heart-attack on the ROCKS !!!!!


What the fuck am I talking about? This is a good book, that's what the fuck I'm talking about, and I'm reviewing this while standing up, most of my reviews are written while sitting down, so this one is fucking extreme. In your face. Acknowledge.

What is this book about? A dude wakes up to see that his then high school girlfriend / now estranged stripper has taken two to the back of the head, execution style. He gets weepy eyed and wants to find out a) who offed the girl who took his virginity underneath a dirty model of a bird and b) to find out how his lovey dovey high school sweetheart went from going to school to be an eye doctor to becoming a stripper that would have her eyes blown out of the front of her head a point blank 9mm bullet. Then some stuff happens and there is a resolution.

Once again, awesome book report, Greg!!! High five!!!

My one problem with the book? I do have a problem with the book, and it's a real nitpicking one. When you are taking a train back from the Bronx, there is no train you could be taking that would come to the end of the line at a station called Eighth Ave and that would connect to the A, C and E. The only train that comes to the end of the line in such a place is the L Train, and it only runs to Brooklyn. Gawd! I was able to overlook this little detail and still enjoy the book, but I wasn't able to overlook it enough not to write about it here. But, I'm only pointing this out to show how good the book was that I didn't let myself get hung up on this small detail.

Great job, Greg!!

[Syaza Jamal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was intrigued by the Hard Case Crime imprint. With the mission statement put out by co-founder, Charles Ardai that the imprint is part, a preservation effort, reprinting out of print pulp books and lost gems of known pulp fiction writers that would see ink on paper for the first time while another part, a purist reproduction, putting out new books by present day authors writing pulp style crime fiction tweaked with modern or current day sensibilities as if the pulp magazine and dime novels publishing houses that inspired co-founders, Ardai and Phillips like Black Mask Magazine or Gold Medal Books were still publishing to this day. The imprint not only brought contrast when placed alongside the current day mainstream crime fiction offerings but Ardai and Phillips created a sense of a highly curated feel to their catalogue through the designs and the general aesthetics of the books they publishes that in turn, produced a semblance of exclusivity to their imprint. Intrigued? Why wouldn't I be.

The first ever novel of Hard Case Crime I've read was The Colorado Kid by Stephen King. Because it's King. It's the only Hard Case Crime book that's everywhere and readily available besides his two other Hard Case Crime novels. Some might not know this, but King does in fact write things that aren't just horror, he does write mystery, thriller, plain jane crime fiction and horror-adjacent dark fictions. Ardai has often hype the novel up, the thirteenth published and the last through the imprint in its original deal and is forever grateful to a superstar level writer such as King whose contribution was not only writing a book in his imprint, but is also among the reason why the Hard Case Crime imprint was serendipitously able to chug along in its infancy years, publishing beyond the original number of books in a deal with Dorchester Publishing, the publisher that Hard Case Crime was a part of, without any disruptions due to the high sales number from that King's book. For me however, I did not like The Colorado Kid at all. It does not fit the second point of the imprint's mission statement as a purist reproduction of pulp fiction. It's a mystery novel that isn't really about the mystery in a narrative sense but more of a deconstruction of the nature of mystery as a whole. In my opinion, it would've work better if it was a non-fiction musing essay instead. Also, King to me is just not pulp like Lawrence Block, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane or Isaac Poole were but the mainstream mass-paperback genre fictions that replaces pulp.

Little Girl Lost by Richard Aleas is the fourth book published through the imprint and is only the second original novel at that point and it fits the second point of Hard Case Crime's mission statement to a tee. It's not exactly a 1:1 recreation but an eclectic continuation of hardboiled as if Gold Medal Books was still operating and put out this book in the 2000s. Little Girl Lost is not a period piece taking place in the 30s or 40s when the elements and tropes of hardboiled fiction doesn't look out of place but sets in a more recent time period or at least contemporaneous to the year it was published of 2004 yet, Aleas' writing was still strictly hardboiled and does genuinely feels it and not at all reads like a pastiche. It does very much contrast with modern (at the time and also even now in 2025) detective thriller or mystery novels where some tried to be "hardboiled" or have an element of it but the machismo and rouge loner protagonist who don't play by the rules trope and writing in general feels over the top or incongruous. Little Girl Lost very much harkens to the Matthew Scudder books of Lawrence Block which are hardboiled private eye novels set in 70s New York, long after the golden age of pulp detective novels.

There is a subversion to Little Girl Lost and that's in the form of its protagonist who is not the typical harden tough-guy archetype, instead John Blake is a bespectacled, lean, college dropout and relatively young private investigator. He gets beat-up instead of being the one that dishes out the punches. Though that doesn't really alter much of the hardboiled detective fiction dynamic aside from the protagonist making different stylistic choice in the way he conducts his investigation. Blake is still very much a "white knight" in a hardboiled narrative and the world it sets in is less of a corrupt city but one that lacks empathy and paranoid in a New York City not too long after 9/11.

The story is told from the first person POV of Blake and the opening I would say, was risky in that it opened with Blake finding out that his high school sweetheart, Miranda Sugarman was found dead on the roof of a strip club before going on to a flashback of the two in high school then immediately back to Blake in the present day jumping into the investigation before establishing Blake is a P.I. The cold open worked because it, like the entire narrative of the novel as a whole was told in a vignette style flashes held together only by Blake's narration and use of dialogue to give clues to readers on what's going on and where's the investigation going without being expository or outright tells me. In the final third when the narrative have thin the herd of suspects, it was almost interactive in the way the story offered me clues to solve the mystery of Miranda's death before Blake does. Aleas is really amazing at show not tell which one of the most basic principle of writing yet far too often this is one that a lot of writer struggles with.

The prose are short, clipped and simple with sparse usage of adverbs and adjective. The sentence by sentence craft were declarative without extensive description or elaboration and Aleas let the scene speak for itself. It works at creating this moody, very paranoia-laden, immediate post-9/11 New York well. The plot was also tight despite the many layers and Aleas never loses track of his story while demonstrating Blake’s strengths and weaknesses as both a moral character and a problem-solver to get through the puzzle surrounding his "little girl lost."

All in all, it's not the most original or astounding hardboiled detective story but it doesn't have to be as long as it can just be a very readable modern reproduction of pulp-style crime fiction to be a prove of concept that the imprint can work and work well. This was that but also smartly written that does the basics well. It also made me curious about Richard Aleas because this was a well above average for a debut and one that really fits the imprint. It turns out that Richard Aleas is a penname for Charles Ardai himself and not only was Aleas a play on alias but it's an anagram for Ardai's name.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long lost love of private investigator, John Blake, turns up dead on the roof of a seedy strip club in New York. As he investigates the circumstances surrounding her death, Blake uncovers a life that he never imagined possible for his high school sweetheart.

John Blake works with Leo, a retired police officer, in a small two-man operation. I liked the give and take between the two detectives with one mentoring the other. Blake, about the same age as myself, is a bit of a hot-head and at times needed to keep his anger in check while Leo was more analytical and experienced. The duo worked well and with a second book already released, I'm interested in checking back in with them.

I had an idea who the killer would end up being somewhat early on but I had felt like it was a little too predictable. Even through it turned out I was right, the way in which Aleas wraps everything up seemed plausible.

Another solid entry from the folks over at Hardcase Crime. I have some serious admiration for this publisher. If you're not already reading these books, you're doing yourself a disservice.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Miranda Sugarman was the first love of private detective John Blakes life. Their brief whirlwind romance at high-school, however short, had a long-lasting effect on Blake - that effect rekindled when out of the blue he sees her face for the first time in years in a newspaper article of her murder on the roof of a seedy strip club.

Last Blake knew of Miranda, she was pre med studying to be an eye doctor. Her murder and the location where the crime was committed didn't fit with the same person he once loved.

As Blake investigates the circumstances surrounding Miranda's murder he comes to learn the person he once knew was far removed from the person who ended up in a body bag atop the strip club.

There is a lot to like with LITTLE GIRL LOST. The investigation itself is Spillane-like by virtue of the personal connection with the detective and the cause for justice having that extra hint of spice.

I've read this book twice now and each time it still packed the same punch. Highly recommended.

[Toby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fine enough modern take on the hardboiled/noir school but nothing special.

Read on the plane from Doha to Perth.

The last book from the Euro tour and it was probably the biggest disappointment of all of them.

John Blake is a modern PI in New York, only 28 and still has to show his ID to get served beer, used to performing background checks rather than investigating crime, this however is personal. His high school girlfriend has been found murdered and Blake can't let it rest in the hands of New Yorks Finest.

Plotwise I found it incredibly obvious. I knew the identity of the murderer and the general outline of what was to come from the very start and Aleas didn't really do anything to divert attention. In addition to this Blake comes across as a lousy PI, so many times I was left scratching my head at his inability to check the easily checkable before doing something "traditionally hardboiled" e.g. going to the victims apartment rather than starting bar fights.

At times I felt Aleas was setting up his own version of Kenzie & Gennaro with the team of Blake & Susan which I guess I will discover when I read the sequel Songs of Innocence but aside from that this was a decent enough standalone piece of crime fiction.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never realized how much I enjoyed old hard-boiled voices, until I started writing words of my own. Even though LITTLE GIRL LOST was written just over eight years ago, it’s clear Richard Aleas feels the same way about the hard-boiled voices of yore. It’s a compelling read from the first page to the last, a rather quick read, and it’s a voice filled with smoky undertones, shady characters, and femme fatales that rival the strong male lead. It’s filled with secrets and lies and half-truths, and women that are just as dangerous as they are beautiful. In short, it’s everything I look for when I pick up a novel, so it’s one I had trouble putting down.

This novel felt as real to me as sunrises and sunsets, and I found myself instantly connected to the world the author presented, so much so that I didn’t want the book to end. But I’m glad SONGS OF INNOCENCE is out there as well, because I can’t wait to see where detective John Blake takes me next.

[Oliver Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solidly enjoyable mystery with all the elements such a thing requires.

[Mr. Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Blake wakes up and his whole world changes. His high school sweetheart, Miranda Sugarman, is splashed all over the morning papers. Instead of living comfortably in the Midwest as an ophthalmologist, she is found dead atop a seedy dead end strip club. A budding detective working in a small, independent two person detective agency, John decides - against his partner's advice - to start digging. And the deeper he digs the dirtier things get.

I picked this book up for kicks and I am seriously glad that I did so. This book was loads of fun. It won't ever be considered classic fiction, but it was a blast to read. It had everything - sex, violence, humor, sympathetic characters, and most especially some seriously unexpected twists and turns.

A solid 4 stars. Maybe 4 and a half.

[Ethan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

From what I understand Hard Case Crime was a publishing company set up by Charles Adlai who moved out of the tech world after running a successful start up company (Juno Online services) to pursue his true passion; hard boiled pulp crime fiction. He created "Hard Case Crime" so that there would be a place to publish contemporary hard boiled crime and bring lost, overlooked and forgotten classics back into print. "Little Girl Lost" is one of the contemporary books and it is actually by Charles Adlai (pen name Richard Aleas).
"Little Girl Lost" is a great read. Its fast, just enough black humor, good characters moving toward violent ends, a bucket of existential dread, lots of fist fights, and most importantly a private dick who, even though he's not exceptionally smart, fast, or successful at what he does will continue to take the hits and dig to the bottom of the tangled mess he's in even at the cost of his life or those he's trying to protect and save. Aleas' biggest achievement is not just getting the beat of the dialog right or capturing the Noir tone but having created a book that is set in present day, where cell phones ring in the middle of a beating or dicks use the internet to research a victim, and still the novel FEELS like it a lost 40s or 50s genre classic. Right down to the classic crime pocket book cover art by Roger McGinnis.



"Anyway, Catch comes in, and he sits down over there, by the phone, and he's carrying a dice cup, rattling it like a guy on the street with a cup of change. We'd all heard about what had happened, and you could tell he wanted someone to ask him about it, but no one says a word to him. So he goes to the bar and says to Zen, but loud so everyone can hear, 'You know those guys that broke into my father's place? You won't be seeing them any more.' And he spills out the dice cup all over the bar, and what it was full of is teeth. He spills them out, spreads them around a little with one finger, then he walks out."
"Lovely", I said.
"Now, I can't tell you for sure whose teeth those were, and neither can anyone else, since Zen did the right thing and got rid of them. But I'd bet dollars to doughnuts Big Murco got his million back, and those two poor bastards are in a landfill somewhere, gumming their food in the next life."

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm on page 172 of this book right now and I'm pretty sure I've spotted the real killer. Am I right? Watch this space to find out! Oh, the suspense...

PS: That cover troubles me. I just don't see how the girl's left leg can do that unless she's just ripped it off and laid it down on the parapet in front of her. Just before shooting it to death with the gun she's holding.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Right; so I was correct. Clever of me. For once, there's a good reason the private eye didn't jump to the obvious conclusion that I spotted. Also, there's a lot more going on than just a mystery story - although that's the part that kept me turning the pages - so being able to see or at least suspect the solution didn't dull the impact of the pay-off. The resolution to the story is horrifying and somehow at the very last moment, bittersweet even if for an apparently trivial reason.

I had low expectations for this, my third Hard Case novel. I'm not a great fan of the Dead Girl school of mystery novels, less so when then corpse in question used to be a stripper. It usually indicates a cliched, lazy and exploitative storyline with severe gender stereotyping issues. That covergirl with her Incredible Elastic Left Leg didn't help either (although I must admit that the cover girl on Fade To Blonde creeped me out too - surely only an alien replicant would have upper arms that long?). But the story within, written by Richard Aleas, alias Charle Ardai, co-founder of Hard Case won me over. It's well written, striking a great balance between gritty action in dubious locales, engrossing detective work and sensitive, effective characterisation. The story remains so grounded in its protagonist's viewpoint and identity that I never felt as if I was getting lost in the swim of things and it was refreshing to read about a young, kiddish-looking PI for a change.

[ALEKSEY KOLYZHIKHIN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this book

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Aleas is the pseudonym of a Shamus Award-nominated mystery writer.

It is super easy read, as I read it with only one break and in under 2 hours. And the first half was a solid 3 star with introduction to John Blake and the man he works for in a small Detective Agency, name of Leo. Leo is past it and needs the young twenty seven year old John to mentor AND to stay in business.

It's NYC, mostly Queens and Manhattan locations- and although precise descriptive skill- the subway and city alley/hallway angst especially, that is not a favorite of mine.

NOTE TO MYSELF: This is listed as (Hard Case Crime #4) and also (John Blake #1). HMMMMMMM! What does that mean? 3 former but more John's to come?

Well, the second half was close to 5 star. The last 20 pages 5 plus.

AND I HAD GUESSED THE PERP from the early middle of the book too! But the twists and quirky turns! Not cliché.

In fact, in this day of the "good guy and yet anti-hero" detective who always gets the nasty player and then with unsullied conscience leaves him/her to our current justice system of no capital punishment consequence(and this goes for the majority plethora of female detectives as well)- this novel- oh no, no NOT a cliché.

And the ending!! No spoilers here, and it is not just about the conclusion of the perp either!

Next my task is looking up this alias question and getting the other Hard Case Crime of #1, #2, & #3 titles. I take it that they are all stand-alones with different characters or this one would not be double listed as John Blake #1.

With this kind of a start at 27 years of age, as "usual" as John seems to start out (both looks and emotional core)- this characterization has potential. Not in size, but in one-minded intent- this guy could age to a Reacher sensibility. Because it is not what you message, what words you say, or intent you have with John. But what you DO. Regardless of your position or current affinity of association. He is blind to the former (words) and only sees the later (deeds done).

ENTERTAINING to all who love that Coben or Child kind of nuance to recognizing duplicity!

Now I will look up the alias source and I hope it is not either of those. They are more than Shamus listed, but who knows. This could have been tried as formed for a specific mystery/action market of much less erudite style. And does it work.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent read, wonderful plot & well written. The description was good, the clues excellent & the characters very believable & logically motivated. Set in modern NYC, I could see this unfolding on any day of the week there.

Our hero is a private detective - a very real one. He spends hours searching the Internet & making phone calls, most of which don't pan out. Aleas doesn't bore us with the details, but he does let us know it is happening, unlike so many detective novels where the hero either magically keeps hitting jackpots or I get bored & confused from all the false leads.

Our hero gets his butt kicked, does a little kicking of his own, deals with the devil & has to make choices that are almost too real. Good & bad are relative - which is why he isn't really happy about his choices. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants to sample the genre. It's one of the best.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Modern noir murder mystery about a dead stripper who used to be a detective's high school girlfriend. Although the plot isn't that original, I gave the book four stars for the writing style. I liked the private detective, even though he did make a few mistakes during the investigation. These were characters that I didn't mind spending time with. An entertaining read.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book although books on crime and mystery aren't my thing. It definitely kept me wondering who did it I was initially following the detective and what he believed but in the back of my mind I saw a different outcome and I was right pretty much.

I'm about to start the sequel, this is definitely a genre I enjoyed and will be reading more books in it.

[Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here's one tense and action oriented crime novel. I can see why it was nominated for a couple of awards when it came out. I will say that I was ahead of the plot twist as maybe it was telegraphed a bit too much, too early. But then again, it's more about the main character and how a person can fool themselves as opposed to tricking the reader. This is definitely "adult material" with scenes describing stripping and strip-tease acts which isn't gratuitous as much of the story moves back and forth between several strip clubs and bars where unsavory types congregate and the story is about a stripper's murder. Overall, it was a quick and enjoyable read.

[Joseph Longo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to thank Nancy for recommending this dective novel. I really enjoyed it. On the cover, Aleas' writing style is compared to Raymond Chandler's. I don't think that he is in Chandler's league yet. But I enjoyed the novel. It is a lively read with enough surprise in the plot, and I enjoyed the detective. I liked that he was young, around 28. So many detives, including Chanler's Marlowe, are middle aged. It's nice seeing a young dective's perspective. I am eager to read Aleas's other novels. Thanks again, Nancy. Aleas is a good find.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exactly what you hope for when you pick up this kind of book: good mystery, constant suspense, great action, vivid characters, a dose of humor, and enough violence to make you squirm.
At its heart, LITTLE GIRL LOST is your typical gumshoe novel, but Richard Aleas (an "alias" for Charles Ardai) manages to put a fresh twist on a well-worn genre. My only two criticisms are that 1.) I saw the big revelation coming a mile away and 2.) the opening chapter kind of annoyed me.

[Malum · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good characters and a fast-paced plot, although the mystery itself is easy to figure out and a bit contrived Whenever there are twins/lookalikes in a mystery novel, there is almost always going to be a swticharoo.

[LibraryCin · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Blake is in his late 20s and is a private investigator. When he sees in the news that his high school girlfriend, now a stripper, has been murdered, he takes it upon himself to find out what happened. Not just the murder, but how did the girl he once knew, who left to go to school to become an eye doctor (optometrist or ophthalmologist, he couldn’t remember), end up a murdered stripper ten years later?

I really liked this one. There was a personal element to it, so that might be why I liked this more than most “noir” mysteries that I’ve read. But also, I liked John and I liked one of the other characters who was helping him. It crossed my mind at one point (in part) what might have happened, but I had good reason to doubt that, so it only briefly floated through my mind. So, the end wasn’t a complete surprise, though it did have to be explained how that could even be (and it was explained). There is another book in the series, but only one more, so I’m not sure if there will be more or not, but I will definitely read the 2nd one.

[Tim Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the very first novels published by Hard Case Crime way back in October 2004. It was written by Hard Case publisher Charles Ardai under the pseudonym Richard Aleas. The novel was very well received being nominated for both a Poe and a Shamus Award.

John Blake is an NYU drop-out working as a private detective under the tutelage of retired cop Leo. Miranda Sugarman was Blake's high school sweetheart who went off to New Mexico to become an ophthalmologist. Blake thought fondly of his Miranda, imagining her in the Midwest as a doctor and a mother living a great life. Until he opened the newspaper to find that Miranda had been in New York City. Working as a stripper. And had been murdered on the roof of the strip club where she was working. Leo warns Blake not to get involved, that it will only lead to heartbreak. But we've read enough of these books to know what will happen.

This is a hard-boiled detective novel, which is kind of nice as opposed to the amateur detective or the everyman noir. Blake knows his craft, but is still green enough to make mistakes. Of course we have the nasty mobster, the heavy who thumps on Blake, the love interest, and the twist that most of us saw coming right away. The book is formulaic, but it's a comfortable formula and Ardai is a good enough writer to make it interesting. I blew through this book in about three days, which means it definitely kept my attention. That's pretty high praise.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished the audiobook edition of Little Girl Lost by Richard Aleas, read by L.S. Ganser. Print version from Hard Case Crime, book HCC-004, with a stunning cover by Robert McGinnis. It’s Aleas’ debut novel that delivers a thoroughly engaging investigation of the murder of stripper Miranda Sugarman, college sweetheart of John Blake, now private investigator—a case Blake is pursuing on his own. Although they’d lost track of each other over the years, he feels a deep sense of loss with her passing. He knows he can’t bring her back, but at least he can help bring her killer to justice, and perhaps give himself some closure as well. A top-notch PI novel.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve become fully engrossed in these Hard Case Crime books. After signing up for their book club and ordering a bunch of them in a catalog sale, I’m hooked. None of the books have hit me like Little Girl Lost has though. Sure, they all had their merits, but I felt that this one stood out above the rest and really exemplifies what this publishing company is doing and the types of stories that you can see from them.

Little Girl Lost starts out simple enough. Young private investigator John Blake receives some bad news one morning when he opens his newspaper to find a picture of his high school sweetheart Miranda Sugarman. She’s been killed. No one knows who did it. Blake sets out on a mission to find out what happened to Miranda. How did she go from a promising high school graduate on her way to medical school to a corpse of a stripper with two bullet holes in the back of her head? What follows is an interesting tale that sees Blake travel through all the worst parts of New York City in his quest to find the truth. From seedy strip clubs to mob bosses to Alphabet City muggings, Blake sees it all and somehow manages to continue on to get to the bottom of this.

I think what set this book apart from some of the other Hard Case Crime offerings was that it wasn’t your usual detective story. You’d think that the guy is going after the girl, but the girl is dead so that door is closed. That had a lot to do with it.

Also, Blake is not the hard-boiled former cop detective that you’re used to. He’s still a little wet behind the ears and he���s not a tough guy, but he can deal it out when need be. That’s not saying that he doesn’t take his share of punishment. In fact, I think that Blake probably gets beaten up more than anyone else in the entire book. To add to this, our hero is a total sap. He doesn’t shrug off emotion. It’s a big part of him and it has a lot to do with how and why he makes the decisions he does.

Little Girl Lost is a great introduction to the Hard Case Crime book series. While the book is set in the present day, you could remove a few minor details like the use of cellphones and you’re right back in the original pulp era. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing for John Blake, but it certainly makes for an interesting experience for us.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my third Hard Case Crime novel and I've enjoyed all so far. I've talked about Hard Case in previous reviews so I will skip the rehash. I picked up Little Girl Lost after reading a interview with Charles Ardai by one of the writers I usually talk about and the one who really pushed me towards crime, Ed Brubaker. Well, actually I picked up Songs of Innocence then I realized it was a second novel in the John Blake series, so, I grabbed Little Girl Lost. If you like crime just for the mystery you probably wont like this book. But, if you read crime for great characters, suspense and crime swagger you'll dig this book. The real meat of this book is the emotional impact the story has on the main character, John Blake. I had great empathy for the main character and although I'll never know what he went through exactly the emotions read clearly to me and my life. The first four pages captured me and two words towards the end changed everything. Like I said if you live for the twist stay away, I figured it out early but this book isn't about the twist. I found myself wanting John Blake to catch up to me just to see what would happen to him with one eye closed because I felt so terrible for knowing before he did. Paraphrasing, Raymond Chandler said: the best detective stories are stories of redemption. And here it is. I cant wait to hid this gem on my book shelf and pull it back out years down the road and try to recapture the feelings I have right now, maybe dull ones or maybe new ones.