HARM'S WAY

Montreal shamus Lee Harms, a Seventies kind of guy—he chants; consults an astrologer/former lover for tips on client motivation, etc.—agrees to find wayward Elizabeth Reynolds for her wealthy dad and see her off to a detox clinic before she appears in any more porn videos and wrecks pop's political ambitions. But before Harms can get her out of drug merchant Rico's house, Rico is, somehow, murdered, and a hefty quantity of coke disappears. Rico's family, incensed, stalks Harms; ignites his cop chum Truman; kills Elizabeth's former boyfriend; and, with pulp-fiction zeal, brutalizes everyone in their way. Elizabeth, meanwhile, has fled. Her dad, beset by a blackmailer and a snuff film showing the end of the line for Liz, kills himself (or was he killed?). And Harms tracks Elizabeth down through the naughty ladies working upstairs at Lingerie Unlimited. More goons will die, and Harms's own daughter will be kidnapped, before a psychiatrist offers an explanation for many of Elizabeth's problems—and Harms opts for a little therapeutic chanting. Cornball, but not without energy, superior punch-'em-out sequences—and unintentional humor. The pseudonymous Foxx also writes as Alan Marks.