THE CONCISE CUDDY

Healy (The Stalking of Sheilah Quinn, p. 781, etc.) is the most consistently successful writer of private-eye stories since Ross Macdonald. These 17 cases for Boston shamus John Francis Cuddy, most of them models of the form, include five Shamus nominees and a couple of others——Someone to Turn Out the Lights” and “Spin-a-rama——that are miracles of resourcefulness, economy, righteousness, and compassion.