Throughout pulp novels of the forties and fifties, which Copper deliberately emulates in this series, rich girls and starlets being blackmailed with pornographic movies or photos was a familiar plot. By 1967, when this novel was published, such things were not quite as shocking. Here, Copper solidly plants his Hardboiled PI Mike Faraday in Hollywood and, more specifically, on the sets of the big name Tinseltown studios. Investigating the disappearance of a movie star rumored to be not only promiscuous but actually sex crazy, Faraday stumbles into a world of murder and greed and blackmail.

This book is solidly cynical and hardboiled and has some rather amusing descriptions of the kinds of characters inhabiting Hollywood and Hollywood parties. Some of the characters include the blonde receptionist with pale pink fingernails and a figure not too hard on the eyeballs who types with two fingers and the old, washed up film editor/ artist with saliva dripping down his chin whose walls were covered with paintings of such vivid color that made you think someone's intestines had been spilled in a car accident. How about a plump blonde dressed as Louis B Mayer's idea of a saloon girl of the 1870s was like, but twenty years too old for the part. There is a real cynicism about movie stars and their sleazy managers and hangers on that just drips from the pages.

This is another fun, fast read in the Faraday series that does a good job of paying homage to the PI stories of an earlier era. It even has a scene where all the suspects are gathered in a room while Faraday expounds on his theories of the case. All in all, a good, solid read. ( )