Newspaper photographer Duffy loses his job and things start going steadily south from there very quickly. An offer to take a few covert photos for more money than he can ignore sets him on a path him deep into the heart of an urban darkness, where crime lords and political bosses rub shoulders (and try to rub each other out), beauty is nothing but a masque hiding madness and murder, and hoodlums operate on primal hatreds and shifting loyalties. James Hadley Chase (actually, Rene Brabazon Raymond) was an Englishman who wrote as an American, and did so very well, making a huge splash with his first book, “No Orchids for Miss Blandish.” While the present book is not as brilliantly written as that first tome, it is well written, and the plot, which is also a character study of the mercurial and avaricious Duffy, is well laid out from beginning to end. The author has constructed Duffy’s story as a cautionary morality tale about the real value of wealth and the dangers of unrestrained pursuit, but has written it in such a way as to present an exciting and engrossing story of gangsterism, corruption and greed. It is a book that will appeal to fans of James M Cain, and, to a lesser degree, readers of Raymond Chandler and Wade Miller.
