Typical hardboiled nonsense from Chase. An ex-private eye gets roped into a dubious scheme to break into a millionaire's safe to put something back. Of course, there's more here than meets the eye - and I'm not referring just to the stripper who figures at the center of the plot. This novel has some of the same twists and surprises that mark Chase's other works, but it loses some steam as it gets to its second half, and isn't the wild joyride that his best work is. He even runs out of too-clever aphorisms--half of which make little sense--after a while. Still, this is pretty good fun.
There's a certain attitude that runs through Chase's books, like he's making them up as he goes along for his own amusement, that I find hard to resist. ( )