"Ed Rivers had one clue to three brutal murders - a long blonde hair!"
Actually, there was also the lipstick-smeared pink kleenex, and the fact the hair was from a dead woman. This is the second twisted case of detection for private investigator Ed Rivers, after The Killer Is Mine, which I found the better mystery.
A Japanese-American family has been murdered in their private summer house - a father, a mother and their grown son Ichiro, slashed with a samurai blade. Nick and Helen Martin, friends of Ed and the Yamashita's neighbours, have disappeared. Nick suffers bouts of depression from fighting in Iwo Jima and Okinawa, soothing it with alcohol. His blade was the weapon, and as he was blackout drunk at the time, he is the prime suspect. He was good friends with the family but even he doesn't know if he is guilty. Ed convinces Nick to surrender, and works hard with Helen to clear his name.
Still with Nationwide Detection Agency, this time Ed works out of the office and runs this case by the book. I preferred the roughshod desperate ways of his last case, and this mystery felt like Talmage was trying to clean up Ed's act. Tampa is still muggy and the sweat doesn't help Ed's ugly appearance, his face still eliciting a reaction. He still carries his .38 and wears his knife in a sheathe at the base of his neck, ready for any sudden attack, and there are several - the first when Helen and Ed search Ichiro's sensualist apartment, from Kuriacha, a wrestling champion and friend of Ichiro's. It's looking more like the parents interrupted some shady dealings of their son, and needed to be silenced. Ed finds the Yamashita's business partner, and his seductive daughter Rachie, an out of control youth who dated Ichiro. Rachie admits his lifestyle was plush and knew he was also dating a mysterious blonde Luisa Shaw, she of the long blonde hair, who has disappeared. One way to find her is though Ed's friend Tilly Rollo, an upscale Tampa madam with a copper-red upsweep and powder blue telephone. Rachie and Tilly work with Ed to find Luisa, but if you are a reader of detective mystery stories, you will have figured this plot out in the first few pages.
There are several violent entanglements, and unseen blackjack hits to Ed's head - the worst of which he wakes up from inside a burning shack out on West Tampa's skid-row. Despite the violent deaths, this unfolds like a conventional investigation. There is a lack of desperation in the characters that I missed, although they were all good liars. There is also a similarity to the last case - an innocent man accused, the wife trying to free him, the rich and poor of Tampa, the police eager to bury the case - the usual detection plot. I enjoyed The Killer Is Mine so much I was eager for more, and this left me satisfied but not impressed. Ed Rivers is still an investigator to watch, and I will look for the other three in the series from Talmage Powell.
My other review for Talmage Powell:
1960 / Paperback / 150 pages
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