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Peter Chambers #1
A Halo for Nobody
A leggy torch singer of bawdy ballads with an eye-opening dance routine to match...
A lady jewelry designer with an exclusive - deadly - clientele...
A sweet young bride with a drawerful of illicit letters that her husband never wrote...
And murder - three lush man-traps mixed up in the murder of a fourth - all set to explode as Peter Chambers, fiction's most hard-boiled private-eye, dodges bullets on a murder trail from the plush retreats of high society to after-hours Greenwich Village!
A lady jewelry designer with an exclusive - deadly - clientele...
A sweet young bride with a drawerful of illicit letters that her husband never wrote...
And murder - three lush man-traps mixed up in the murder of a fourth - all set to explode as Peter Chambers, fiction's most hard-boiled private-eye, dodges bullets on a murder trail from the plush retreats of high society to after-hours Greenwich Village!
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1947
4 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Henry Kane
218 books12 followersAuthor Henry Kane was a lawyer who seemed to prefer writing. In his career, wrote over 60 novels, including about 30 featuring Peter Chambers. Other short-lived series characters were PIs Marla Trent and retired NYPD detective inspector turned P.I. McGregor. He also wrote the movie adaptations for Ed McBain's 87th Precinct's Cop Hater and The Mugger. And, in light of his experience with Chambers, Kane was the perfect choice to pen an original novel starring television's Peter Gunn.
He also wrote under the pseudonyms Anthony McCall, Kenneth R. McKay, and Mario J. Sagola. He is the creator of Peter Chambers, a private eye in New York City, McGregor, an ex-cop turned private eye in New York City, and Maria Trent. Kane also contributed to the series of 'Ellery Queen' novels ghostwritten by other authors.
He also wrote under the pseudonyms Anthony McCall, Kenneth R. McKay, and Mario J. Sagola. He is the creator of Peter Chambers, a private eye in New York City, McGregor, an ex-cop turned private eye in New York City, and Maria Trent. Kane also contributed to the series of 'Ellery Queen' novels ghostwritten by other authors.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 25, 2023
Henry Kane and his most famous creation, Peter Chambers, are a love'em or hate'em type of thing. I've read about people who can't stand them. I like them, if only because it shows how little a certain segment of Manhattan has changed over the years. Any TV show set in Manhattan, Chambers would fit right in.
In this one, Cambers gets involved with three murders. He spends most of the time wandering around putting the make on women and drinking liquor. Somewhere along the line, though, he solves the crimes and makes enough money to keep him in martinis for a while.
Very smooth.
In this one, Cambers gets involved with three murders. He spends most of the time wandering around putting the make on women and drinking liquor. Somewhere along the line, though, he solves the crimes and makes enough money to keep him in martinis for a while.
Very smooth.
June 7, 2025
Like Erle Stanley Gardner, Henry Kane (the author) was a lawyer by trade who ended up writing quite a few books. In all, he wrote over 60 novels, including 28 in his Peter Chambers private eye series published from 1947 to 1970. Kane was perhaps best known for writing the Peter Gunn novel that went along with the hit television series. The Chambers series is fairly decent but occasionally throughout the book the reader may find the writing uneven and passages turn up unfocused.
Chambers has a private eye office in New York City with a senior partner Philip Scoffol, who generally does not play a major role in the Chambers’ novels. His secretary is known as “Foxy” and they have a multitude of lower level operatives they can call upon.
Chambers had been in the Club Nevada, “I was paying attention to Lolita Blamey singing songs, some clean, some dirty, only when she sang them dirty they didn’t sound dirty, but cute, like when your four-year-old daughter comes up with one of those words she learned while playing house in her girl friend’s back yard.” “Lolita Blamey, who was something. Tall and very shapely with red red lips and black black hair and large even white teeth that glistened like candy stripes on a peppermint stick.”
A client, Blair Curtis, asks Chambers to meet him at his apartment and discuss a case. When he gets there, a guy is getting brained with a billy club and a woman is shot trying to jump in a cab. Chambers lets loose with four shots at the fleeing cab. The guy that got lumped is one Wesley Gorin, but the woman is Rochelle Curtis, wife of Chambers’ client-to-be.
The cab is found later in Central Park with the same gun that took out sweet Rochelle having been used to take out the cab driver and ““Little Joe Pineapple. A gun punk who developed into a racket boy of stature and then tapered off. But if this is a gang knock-off, where does Mrs. Rochelle Pratt Curtis fit in?”
With that wild opening scene with lots of gunfire and bodies flying, you might think you were getting Mike Hammer, but Chambers occasionally plays tough guy, but spends more time hobnobbing in nightclubs.
The big question here is what does a lowlife like Joe Pineapple have to do with upper class Dames like Rochelle and what dies the potential blackmail case Chambers is picking up have to do with it. Eventually, Chambers will puzzle it out and be surprised at how far back in time the web goes. He will find that the glittering gold is often tarnished and dirty underneath. But before he can put all the pieces together a lot more bodies will have to turn up and things get dicier for him.
Chambers has a private eye office in New York City with a senior partner Philip Scoffol, who generally does not play a major role in the Chambers’ novels. His secretary is known as “Foxy” and they have a multitude of lower level operatives they can call upon.
Chambers had been in the Club Nevada, “I was paying attention to Lolita Blamey singing songs, some clean, some dirty, only when she sang them dirty they didn’t sound dirty, but cute, like when your four-year-old daughter comes up with one of those words she learned while playing house in her girl friend’s back yard.” “Lolita Blamey, who was something. Tall and very shapely with red red lips and black black hair and large even white teeth that glistened like candy stripes on a peppermint stick.”
A client, Blair Curtis, asks Chambers to meet him at his apartment and discuss a case. When he gets there, a guy is getting brained with a billy club and a woman is shot trying to jump in a cab. Chambers lets loose with four shots at the fleeing cab. The guy that got lumped is one Wesley Gorin, but the woman is Rochelle Curtis, wife of Chambers’ client-to-be.
The cab is found later in Central Park with the same gun that took out sweet Rochelle having been used to take out the cab driver and ““Little Joe Pineapple. A gun punk who developed into a racket boy of stature and then tapered off. But if this is a gang knock-off, where does Mrs. Rochelle Pratt Curtis fit in?”
With that wild opening scene with lots of gunfire and bodies flying, you might think you were getting Mike Hammer, but Chambers occasionally plays tough guy, but spends more time hobnobbing in nightclubs.
The big question here is what does a lowlife like Joe Pineapple have to do with upper class Dames like Rochelle and what dies the potential blackmail case Chambers is picking up have to do with it. Eventually, Chambers will puzzle it out and be surprised at how far back in time the web goes. He will find that the glittering gold is often tarnished and dirty underneath. But before he can put all the pieces together a lot more bodies will have to turn up and things get dicier for him.
July 15, 2021
This was enjoyable enough for a crime pulp. However, by the time I got maybe halfway through, it was starting to drag. There were so many characters, and the scenes became repetitive. I did like the ending.
November 28, 2020
A Halo for Nobody (1947) by Henry Kane is the first of his Peter Chambers series and it features quite a murder fest. Peter Chambers is the tough guy, rougher half of Scoffol and Chambers, Investigators. One evening he is an eyewitness to the murder of Rochelle Curtis, wife of the wealthy Blair Curtis who owns half of an elite jewelry business. But when Blair Curtis approaches him to investigate it isn't his wife's murder that he's most interested in--it's the fact that he thinks he's being blackmailed. Getting to the bottom of the blackmailing business, will lead him to find connections between Rochelle's murder, the death of Joe Pineapple (one of the men involved in Rochelle's shoot and run death), as well as half a dozen more deaths including that of a reclusive, wealthy bookmaker. Curtis doesn't think it really has anything to do with him or his circle...Chambers may just prove him wrong.
Kane's story takes us on fast-paced journey through seedy dives and upscale clubs with equal abandon. Chambers may walk the mean streets but he glides easily between the two worlds and just as easily sidesteps threats from both the upper class and the denizens of New York's underworld. Along the way he manages to collect quite an arsenal of hand weapons from those looking to ensure that this case is his last...he'll prove them wrong as well.
Hardboiled crime fiction isn't my usual fare and for those who like this sort of thing, I'm not sure that it's the most shining example. But I liked it. There was something about Chambers and his methods that just clicked with me. It's amazing that he didn't get knocked off several times in this book (but then Kane wouldn't let that happen to his hero, would he?). I did enjoy how one of the suspects underestimated him and misjudged exactly what Chambers would or wouldn't do. Not that the estimation was all that misguided given past performance, but Chambers has a few tricks up his sleeve that he only uses when necessary.
Certainly not a fair play mystery, but I don't expect that from this type of crime fiction. A fun, fast-paced read that made for an enjoyable afternoon.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
Kane's story takes us on fast-paced journey through seedy dives and upscale clubs with equal abandon. Chambers may walk the mean streets but he glides easily between the two worlds and just as easily sidesteps threats from both the upper class and the denizens of New York's underworld. Along the way he manages to collect quite an arsenal of hand weapons from those looking to ensure that this case is his last...he'll prove them wrong as well.
Hardboiled crime fiction isn't my usual fare and for those who like this sort of thing, I'm not sure that it's the most shining example. But I liked it. There was something about Chambers and his methods that just clicked with me. It's amazing that he didn't get knocked off several times in this book (but then Kane wouldn't let that happen to his hero, would he?). I did enjoy how one of the suspects underestimated him and misjudged exactly what Chambers would or wouldn't do. Not that the estimation was all that misguided given past performance, but Chambers has a few tricks up his sleeve that he only uses when necessary.
Certainly not a fair play mystery, but I don't expect that from this type of crime fiction. A fun, fast-paced read that made for an enjoyable afternoon.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block.
September 12, 2023
I see folks often reviewing and complaining of books that show age. Almost always that is of political views. This is one I can point to that is making the mistake I see & hear in current video on television and movies. This book is thick with the lingo that floated around New York City at the time. So, even at that time, the book was hardly readable outside of New York City or such urban areas. I can get through it due to being so familiar with the period. I can't see a regular Joe getting through this book at all easily.
The larger problem is the structure of the plot that is much as a drying swamp with dialogue being the cypress knees. A reader, today, trying to negotiate the book will often get hung up throughout and. likely, give up.
This is poorly plotted and the writing it too obtuse.
Bottom line: I don't recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.
The larger problem is the structure of the plot that is much as a drying swamp with dialogue being the cypress knees. A reader, today, trying to negotiate the book will often get hung up throughout and. likely, give up.
This is poorly plotted and the writing it too obtuse.
Bottom line: I don't recommend this book. 4 out of ten points.
December 10, 2024
This could have easily been a 4-star book, rather than 3-star, with some good editing. As many others have commented, this book has too many unneeded characters and was drawn out far longer than it needed to. Could have been one-third shorter and had more punch that way. On the plus side, it's a solid detective story with the tough-but-charming Peter Chambers solving more than one mystery along the way to the end. I'd be up for trying another book by Henry Kane, hopefully next time with a bit of editing.
February 4, 2017
A detective tale in the Raymond Chandler - Dashiell Hammet style.
P.I. Peter Chambers witnesses the murder of Mrs. Rochelle Pratt Curtis in front of the Club Nevada. Shortly before he had been inside enjoying the show and having drinks. He had been approached by a friend who had a friend who needed his service, a Mr. Blair Curtis. Thus starts a tale of intrigue with numerous characters with names like Matty Pineapple, Augie Piazza, Grandma Ed Holly, the beautiful Edith Wilde and more. There are also a few more murders along the way.
Written in 1947, Chambers is one of the wise-cracking, tough talking, woman loving types. He never shows fear and has little hesitation when action is required. He enjoys fine clothes, classy living quarters, good booze and beautiful babes. He is good at what he does and knows it. In his own words; "I was flash. I was ready money. When I had it. I was the guy with plenty of padding in the shoulders of the special made-to-order suits, with stripes, with a suggestion of peg in the trousers, with jackets that had to be long enough for a guy that measured six feet tow. I was the guy that shot crap with the boys and took out the office help, when they were cute. I was the guy for the dames." He is at home with high-hats and the lowlifes and can get his information from both.
The story line is a bit complex and at times it is hard to see the connections between some of the characters. Secret lives, high-end jewellery heists, blackmail, a multiple murderer; everyone seems to have something to hide and Chambers is determined to find out what and if it helps solve the case. With people being unwilling to talk, Chambers has to do a lot of leg work and thinking to come up with the solutions. Yes, there is more than one mystery between the covers of this book.
P.I. Peter Chambers witnesses the murder of Mrs. Rochelle Pratt Curtis in front of the Club Nevada. Shortly before he had been inside enjoying the show and having drinks. He had been approached by a friend who had a friend who needed his service, a Mr. Blair Curtis. Thus starts a tale of intrigue with numerous characters with names like Matty Pineapple, Augie Piazza, Grandma Ed Holly, the beautiful Edith Wilde and more. There are also a few more murders along the way.
Written in 1947, Chambers is one of the wise-cracking, tough talking, woman loving types. He never shows fear and has little hesitation when action is required. He enjoys fine clothes, classy living quarters, good booze and beautiful babes. He is good at what he does and knows it. In his own words; "I was flash. I was ready money. When I had it. I was the guy with plenty of padding in the shoulders of the special made-to-order suits, with stripes, with a suggestion of peg in the trousers, with jackets that had to be long enough for a guy that measured six feet tow. I was the guy that shot crap with the boys and took out the office help, when they were cute. I was the guy for the dames." He is at home with high-hats and the lowlifes and can get his information from both.
The story line is a bit complex and at times it is hard to see the connections between some of the characters. Secret lives, high-end jewellery heists, blackmail, a multiple murderer; everyone seems to have something to hide and Chambers is determined to find out what and if it helps solve the case. With people being unwilling to talk, Chambers has to do a lot of leg work and thinking to come up with the solutions. Yes, there is more than one mystery between the covers of this book.
October 7, 2015
Also known as Martinis and Murder, this is the first in a long line of breezy novels featuring hard-boiled detective Peter Chambers. Author Kane's bizarre stylistic flourishes (extravagant puns, relentless alliteration) are not yet in evidence, let alone the soft-core porn episodes which interrupt the Chambers novels of the 1970s, but this is a deftly written thriller with a light touch, and the occasional nice turn of phrase ("Mitch was as tricky as the jagged end of an open can."). But if most writers got paid by the word, Kane must have been paid by the character--the book is positively chockfull of them, with seemingly two or three new faces per chapter. Keeping track of all this is a chore, but overall it's agreeable enough.
Want to read
April 30, 2019Synopsis: PI Peter Chambers is on the scene of a murder at Club Nevada. Did Matty Pineapple do it?
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews