COPP FOR HIRE

Ex-cop Joe Copp is now an L.A. private eye, a ""cop for hire"" who narrates this run-of-the-mill shamus debut in a pulpy, hard-boiled style that often verges on unintentional parody. (""I smelled trouble all over this kid the instant she stepped into my office. She was hot. . .I'm talking tits. . .mouth-watering tits. . ."") And Copp's first case begins when his new client, frightened barroom-stripper Juanita Valdez, is hit-and-run murdered. Soon dead, too, is the gay bartender at Juanita's place of employment. Likewise Juanita's roommate--and the San Gabriel Division cop who'd been harassing Juanita just before her death. Copp, of course, wants to know what's going on--especially since he himself (along with new bedmate Linda, one of Juanita's colleagues) starts getting shot at. Some local police detectives, it seems, have been moonlighting as private security, with a secret sideline in kinky sex-party catering. More important, these sordid doings are connected to a creepy rising politician--whom Copp follows to Hawaii. And, with help from the quasi-honorable ""Godfather of Chinatown,"" super, shamus--who loves taking on three thugs at a time--uncovers the unsurptising truth about a group-sex/blackmail scheme. . .and avenges the murder of Juanita, the gang-rape of Linda, etc., etc. With constant recaps of the thin plot and lectures about life on ""the hard side"": rough stuff that's occasionally gutsy, more often humdrum or silly--from the author of the paperback Executioner series.