Just Finished Reading: Kill Now, Pay Later by Robert Terrall (FP: 1960)

For Private Detective Ben Gates it was a straight forward bread and butter assignment – stand around looking tough, keep the guests away from the (very) expensive wedding presents and pick up a reasonable pay check from the Insurance Company in the morning. And it was straight-forward, right up till the point where someone slipped him a micky and he went bye-bye. When he woke hours later he found a police detective standing over him, expensive jewellery missing and two dead bodies to explain. Unless Gates could discover exactly what happened while he slept he’ll never work for the Company again and, after the story hit the papers, may never work again. With a suspect list as long as the guest list, a detective with a chip on his shoulder about Private Eyes, a client who lies every time he opens his mouth and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of women throwing themselves at him in the hope he’ll be distracted away from the case he certainly has his work cut out if he want to find out who drugged him and who gain from the double murder.

To date the Hard Case Crime series has been disappointingly hit and miss. Surprisingly (or not if you think about it) the older books tend to be a hit far more often than their more modern imitators. This was one of those time. I chuckled my way through this typical Noir detective story complete with wise cracks (you could almost hear the gravelly voice over at times), dangerous dames, a morally dubious high class family with enough skeletons in their closets to start their own cemetery, desperate scam artists and their jaded girlfriends trying to get out of the dirty movie business and much more besides. It was almost too much of a cliché but because of that, not to mention good writing and sparkling dialogue that made me laugh out loud more than once, this was both a delight and a breeze to read. It’s one of those books where you can put your brain into neutral and just go with the story. Little actual thought is required but there’s still enough mystery and action to keep you effortlessly entertained. Definitely one of the best of the series so far.

[2015 Reading Challenge: A book that came out in the year you were born– COMPLETE (25/50)]