Classic pulp fiction, I suppose. Full of hard drinking, mindless violence, gangsters, misogyny, and little coherent thought before launching into more episodes of manly action and mayhem. I found it to be rather tiresome and, in the end, rather pointless. ( )

Another solidly entertaining book by Chase, although it definitely takes a little too long to reach its conclusion. A newspaper photographer, who just lost his job, is offered a lot of money to take some photos of someone's ex-wife and the man who is blackmailing her - or at least that's the story he is told. As is usual in Chase, things are much more complicated than that. The next thing he knows, he's helping her hide a body (they take it to a "burial ground" on the other side of Greenwich Village and put it in a crypt). This book is full of Britishisms such as "burial ground" and "shan't" that throw off the mood every few pages - not sure if there is an American edition where these were changed. In any case, things keep moving so fast that you don't have that much time to think about it. This is a book with only a few ounces of compassion for anybody - and certainly not for our ex-photographer as he makes the acquaintance of numerous stereotyped but nevertheless interesting gangland characters. You can almost pick out the 1940s actors who could have played them.

So, bottom line, this is recommended, but read "No Orchids for Miss Blandish" first. If you can stomach that, you will probably like whatever else by Chase you can get your hands on. ( )