Client - Hardcover

Hall, Parnell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 155611169X ISBN 13: 9781556111693

Publisher: Donald I. Fine Inc., 1990

Synopsis

Blessed with a paying client, Stanley Hastings soon finds himself cursed with the onus of suspicion when the woman he is following is murdered, and the sleuth's efforts to clear his name take him to the highest levels of New York government

About this title

Reviews

In his fifth adventure ( Detective ; Murder ; etc.) New York private eye Stanley Hastings is still working for a sleazy lawyer, who generally sends him out to take depositions from "victims" in accident cases. Then Stanley finally gets a real client: Marvin Nickleson isn't likable, and tailing his estranged wife Monica isn't at all appealing, but Stanley--a would-be action-writer with a wife, a small child and a big dental bill--needs the money. Surveillance is uneventful until Monica drives out of town and checks into a motel near Poughkeepsie. The next morning, she's dead--though she isn't really Monica, the real Marvin isn't Stanley's client and Stanley is the chief murder suspect. The only clues are the first three letters of a license plate and a man in a checked cap, which eventually lead the detective to a land-zoning bribery scam. The ending is a bit pallid, and Stanley talks too much, but he's an appealing character nonetheless.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

That likable accident-scene photographer and private investigator Stanley Hastings returns, inept as ever, as he tails a client's estranged wife. He follows the woman to a remote motel, falls asleep on surveillance, and wakes to find himself framed for her murder. As if that isn't enough, the murdered woman turns out to be someone else; Stanley's client duped him. With characteristic short, swift-moving sentences and low-key, wry humor ( Strangler , LJ 5/1/89; Favor , LJ 9/1/88), Hall moves his bumbling protagonist toward the truth. Continued high quality.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Donald I. Fine Inc.
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 155611169X
• ISBN 13: 9781556111693
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 292