BLACKMAIL

It's a mystery how Stanley Hastings gets the chance to chase those ambulances: he's constantly spending his time talking himself out of murder raps. Here, Stanley starts off by compounding a felony in taking Marlena Smith's $500 for paying off a blackmailer who's peddling pornographic photos she doesn't even bother to look at (maybe because she wasn't one of the subjects?), then repeats the offense, this time for $1,000, when she asks him to get the negatives. At the rendezvous, Stanley finds a dead body—but instead of being Barry the blackmailer, it's Marlena. (Barry, who turns out to be sporadically employed actor Cliff McFadgen, isn't killed until an hour or so later- -and, yes, Stanley stumbles on his body too.) After Stanley spends a night in the drunk tank when he can't reach his boss, negligence lawyer Richard Rosenberg; withholds evidence about the people in the photos from the police; and insists on running his own, utterly hopeless investigation instead—is it any wonder his nemesis, Sgt. Thurman, battens on Stanley? Stanley's sad-sack adventures (Actor, 1993, etc.) usually start with a terrific idea and then gradually peter out. Not this time. Every page quivers with comic frustration, and the result is an absolute joy.