Reviews

That likable accident-scene photographer and private investigator Stanley Hastings returns, inept as ever, as he tails a client's estranged wife. He follows the woman to a remote motel, falls asleep on surveillance, and wakes to find himself framed for her murder. As if that isn't enough, the murdered woman turns out to be someone else; Stanley's client duped him. With characteristic short, swift-moving sentences and low-key, wry humor ( Strangler , LJ 5/1/89; Favor , LJ 9/1/88), Hall moves his bumbling protagonist toward the truth. Continued high quality.

In his fifth adventure ( Detective ; Murder ; etc.) New York private eye Stanley Hastings is still working for a sleazy lawyer, who generally sends him out to take depositions from ``victims'' in accident cases. Then Stanley finally gets a real client: Marvin Nickleson isn't likable, and tailing his estranged wife Monica isn't at all appealing, but Stanley--a would-be action-writer with a wife, a small child and a big dental bill--needs the money. Surveillance is uneventful until Monica drives out of town and checks into a motel near Poughkeepsie. The next morning, she's dead--though she isn't really Monica, the real Marvin isn't Stanley's client and Stanley is the chief murder suspect. The only clues are the first three letters of a license plate and a man in a checked cap, which eventually lead the detective to a land-zoning bribery scam. The ending is a bit pallid, and Stanley talks too much, but he's an appealing character nonetheless. (May)