A Fine and Private Place: A Gil Disbro Mystery by James E. Martin

Acclaimed Cleveland detective Gil Disbro is back in a gripping new adventure featuring the high-stakes world of big-time boxing. The bell rings when Lowell Amerine, a distinguished elderly judge, hires the chain-smoking, teetotaling detective to find out who has been blackmailing him over a body buried in his backyard. Amerine's no-good nephew has already told him that the body is that of a girlfriend who accidentally died of a drug overdose. But now that there is not one blackmailer, but two, the judge is getting worried. Gil soon discovers that there is no shortage of possible suspects. Is the blackmailer the ne'er-do-well nephew, Barry Sprague, or perhaps Gus Cusimano, the Mafia don who has been pressuring Sprague to pay up on his gambling debts? Maybe it is Pete Botkin, the shady fight promoter who skipped town after getting on the wrong side of Cusimano. Or Disbro's old nemesis, Slick Underhill, the Midwest's con artist par excellence. Gil soon finds himself dodging both bullets and the police as he tries to thwart a brutal killer and unravel a brilliant scam. In addition to a growing body count, Disbro also has to contend with a beautiful young woman with a secret. His attraction to her threatens his relationship with his professor lover, Helen. In this, his best Gil Disbro mystery yet, James E. Martin exposes the seamy underside of Cleveland's streets and neighborhoods with expert detail and nonstop action. Harlan Ellison, James Ellroy, and Thomas Gifford have praised Martin's writing since it first appeared. And reviewers claim that James E. Martin is doing for Cleveland what Raymond Chandler did for Los Angeles. Hard-hitting, gritty, and authentic, A Fine and Private Place willundoubtedly secure Martin's place in the hard-boiled pantheon. This 1995 Avon Paperback is in good condition.

ISBN: 9780380716975 SKU: 1318752 Note: Any image shown is from a stock photo and is not the actual book.

Location: Mystery