THE VALENTINE ESTATE

by Stanley Ellin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 11, 1968

Even the chase-hardened admirers of Mr. Ellin will have trouble keeping up with this ulcerating rowdydow let alone remembering what has happened by the time it's over. Still he's a good enough writer to retain the reader's attention through the exhausting procedures which, sketchily reassembled, seem to begin with the arranged marriage of one Chris Monte, a washed up tennis bum, and Elizabeth Jones, who offers him a dowry of fifty thousand dollars on her inheritance of the Valentine estate. Then there are all sorts of interested claimants and assailants--the man she worked for who has subsidized her mother (in an institution); a Syndicate representative who seems to be the money man behind the deal; and assorted killers from Miami to London where both the identity of the deceased and the existence of the estate seem highly conjectural. Mr. Ellin, like many other strong-armed practitioners of the genre from Chandler to Fleming, can clobber rather than con you into submission so you might as well enjoy it. At that, you probably will.

Pub Date: Sept. 11, 1968

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1968

Categories: FICTION