A Private Party (William Ard, 1953)

Kind of weak and a little far-fetched premise (P.I. hired by the bad guys), but I liked this one anyway because it still felt realistic.

Instead of the mob, our hero simply deals with a corrupt bunch of trade union hoodlums (or something like that). Cops are not just clueless bystanders; they are actively involved. In fact, they get an equal share of the ink as our hero. There's an inspector, and although he and P.I. Dane do cooperate, they are far from best friends. Women are beautiful and sexy (small boned too - see the facts) but far from overly stereotypical (Ann freely admits she won't be able to withstand Dane's questioning). There's also a great and believable backstory about the shenanigans between the various law enforcement branches and politics that lead to the fuck-up on which the premise is built. Cool stuff.

Written well, too, keeping a steady pace and nicely steering between melodrama and more hard-boiled-ish stuff. Told in the third person, changing the focus on several characters around whom the action is concentrated, with some facts revealed in flashbacks (like newspaper articles). A good ratio of dialogue to action and descriptions, with just enough attention to detail (to be honest, some, like Roxy going to the beauty salon, may be a bit redundant).

Too bad that the ending sucks. It finishes abruptly, as if the author had reached the word count limit (although it's only 120 pages long). A bit of an anti-climax, especially with that cop's non-selfish sacrifice nonsense...

But I liked the style a lot and will definitely check out other Ard's stuff in the future.

3.5/5

Facts:

Hero:
"No. I said I was Timothy Dane from New York..."
"A snooping newspaper reporter!"
No," said the one who had entered with Purdy, "Just a hustler. They call themselves private detectives."

Location: 
New York and some fictitious small town called Newchester forty miles north.

Body count: 

5

Dames:

Roxanne Garde aka Roxy:
A very beautiful woman, a redhead woman... Her face was small and delicate, clefted at the chin, with full, sensuous lips and wide-set green eyes whose dominant expression was appraisal. She was tall bodied, with long legs, tapering waist, extraordinary breasts.

Ann Bogan, extremely pretty and endowed with generous physical attractions:
Short and small boned. So short, and so perfectly proportioned, that her waist could truly be surrounded by a man's two hands and her 32 bosom looked pert and more than ample to men and women alike.

Blackouts: 

/

Title:
The initial killing takes place at some private party.

Edition:
Popular Library #569, March 1954

Cover:
Roxy and Timothy

Cool lines: 

"I'm supposed to be special," she said in a low voice. "Why is it you don't react?"
"I must be backward," he said. "Get out of my way."
"You do it," she said. "You get me out of your way."

She uncrossed her legs, rose out of the chair and stood close to him with what Dane thought was a single, fluid motion. Her scent assailed him, made him more conscious of her basic femaleness than he could remember. And more aware of his own manhood.