Howard Rigsby (1909–1975)

Found this on the big bookshelf and couldn't remember where or when I got it. Opened it up and I was hooked. Read it in one sitting...which went till around 3 a.m., but I found that I couldn't put it down. It was like watching one of the old black and white movies that just keep you going.

Tim Wilde has driven down from San Francisco to Jewel Bay to meet with a Frank A. Wetzler, Jr. The note had no real detail of what the job was about but it did have a nice retainer check. Instead of Mr. Wetzler showing up, Catherine, the wife shows up! She found out about the meeting and came instead. Seems Mr. Wetzler isn't the strong one in the family. She has a fear that something horrible is about to happen. And it does...murder...of Mr. Wetzler's father!

Wilde is one of the tough types, but he has a background that takes the rough edges off. The two of them discover a common topic of music. Wilde's mother had been a music teacher and Wilde has a good background in it. Catherine is a trained concert pianist. This is just a little intro that blooms into a hot attraction. But she is married...to Wilde's client!

There is plenty of action and mystery in this book. It is set in a small beach community, with the Wetzler family being the mainstay. The are the ones in the big house with all the money, and there are people in the town that have no affection for them. Suspects aren't lacking but the clues seem to be elusive at times.

I really did find this a Goodread!… (more)

Another noir story which just rattles along pleasantly without ever achieving much. It takes place in Mexico, where our protagonist, a private eye, has been sent to investigate the death of an expatriate American. He becomes involved (really involved!) with the dead man's three girlfriends and his next door neighbor, an odd Mexican who likes to talk a lot and has a beautiful nude female servant bring him breakfast. It's that kind of book. In between the exotica and sex scenes (not explicit) the whodunit plot line doesn't seem to be a big priority for the author, although the finale is fairly well done. Howard writes pretty well, but as in so many Gold Medal novels, there seems to have been no editor asking for the type of small improvements that could have lifted this book out of mediocrity.… (more)