From Publishers Weekly
Purists may balk at this mystery's all-encompassing red herring, but will admit that it is convincing nonetheless. Stanley Hastings--Hall's hero in Detective and five other novels--supports a slack writing career by working as a private eye in New York City. While chasing ambulances for a law firm, he gets a walk-in client: wealthy Melissa Ford, a meek, homely woman who wants to investigate the intentions of her boyfriend, David Melrose. Stanley stakes out Melrose as he picks up a suspicious package, presumably containing drugs, in SoHo and then has a rendezvous with another woman. When Stanley reports his findings to Melissa, she angrily fires him; however, when Melrose is murdered and Melissa becomes chief suspect, Stanley feels it his duty to check out the possible Melrose drug connection. He tails various individuals from SoHo to Harlem and is shot by an unseen assailant in a deserted building. Before the twisting plot leads to two climaxes (one farcical) we get vivid looks at Manhattan's seamier side, pointers on one-on-one basketball and a sweet victory for a 10-year-old Harlem boy.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Nebbish/shamus Stanley Hastings, who usually chases ambulances for negligence lawyer Richard Rosenberg, finally has his own client: mousy Melissa Ford, who wants him to look into her boyfriend David Melrose's background. In just one day's work, Stanley finds out so much about lying, womanizing David that it's no surprise when same turns up dead the next morning, with Melissa the obvious suspect. Repulsed by Melissa and her lawyer, Stanley takes time off from photographing young Raheem Webb's highly suspicious head injuries for Richard to tail some of David's associates in the hope of tying his murder to a drug deal--and this time he's the one who gets shot in a Harlem tenement, just in time for his court appearance as a witness against his former client and to make eager-beaver Sergeant Reynolds wonder if he might be the killer. Not as funny or as neatly plotted as Juror, Stanley's last outing, though Stanley gets to do a lot more detective work here--all of it endearingly incompetent. --
Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
