THE IVORY GRIN

Lew Archer, the unshockable and Indestructible, sticks with a fairly tight problem which has to do with tracking down a colored girl and later with the disappearance of wealthy young Singleton. The colored girl is murdered, another detective's body is passed off as singleton's and Archer, tackling the pasts of both clients and suspects, loops all the frayed nds into a hangman's knot for the killer who uses a Poe-like device for hiding the evidence of Singleton's murder. Convincing California calculations.