The V8Ford Blues
By Gordon Donnell

     Henry Spain is a small-time private-eye/skip tracer in Los Angeles. When he is hired by "Tough" Tommy Lipton to do a background check on the new night club singer, it sounds like a routine, easy job. Spain quickly discovers that there is nothing routine or easy about Jean LaBostrie. He decides to follow her when she leaves the nightclub, and arrives at her destination just in time to hear four shots and observe Jean quickly exit the house. When Henry goes into the house, he finds a murdered Walter Brixner, but he is reasonably sure that Jean did not do the deed.

     The bodies pile up in a fast exciting quest for something called the Doomsday Book, and Henry Spain finds himself in the middle of everybody's search for the book and the target for someone who doesn't want Henry to find it first.

      Gordon Donnell is a genius at characterization and witty dialogue. The text fairly sparkles with fresh similes...no clichés here. The characters are misfits and weirdoes that include a dying political boss, perverts, gamblers, and pornographers, and everyone is corrupt. Sudden death is the norm in this fast paced, funny novel where the suspense builds to a surprise climax, and nothing is what it seems.

      The V8 Ford Blues kept me up all night and made me an instant fan of Gordon Donnell. I see that he does have a couple more books out, and they are next on my reading list. How about a Henry Spain sequel, Gordon?