THE SIMPLE ART OF MURDER

..... and its expert transcription in a series of short stories and short novels which (with the exception of one lighter piece and a closing discussion of detective fiction, his and others') have the cold precision of a police blotter and a high charge of violence. Here is that familiar nighttime world of roulette wheels and dance floors; of leather furniture and indirect lighting; of brandy and tequila; of characters that play rough and fight dirty- gun and finger men, politicos and their fixers, coppers and shamuses, and the blondes and flame tops they tomcat with; here too is money, big money, pearls, blackmail- the shady deal, the hot job and the cold result. In this medium and this style which derivates from Dashiell Hammett, these stories have an economy which is highly explicit and effective.