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The writing is crisp, the mood deliberately retro and the pacing superb.
Alberta writer Mike Harrison has got a fun character in private detective Eddie Dancer.
He's a scoundrel and a bit of a low-life, a Mike Hammer type who parks his feet on his desk and works on the crossword puzzle in the Calgary Herald.
Ruby Tuesday (ECW Press, $27, 263 pages), Harrison's third book, is an easy read. Advertising exec Paul Miller witnesses an assault at a bank machine. He intervenes to protect a woman. Her husband hits him and Miller retaliates. His move on the thug is caught on a security camera.
He's injured badly enough to be hospitalized. The cops still charge him with assault. The thug sues Miller. The pair decide to duke it out in a boxing ring. If Miller wins, the charges will be dropped and so will the lawsuit.
Miller's wife, a dame in the classic fashion, hires Eddie Dancer to stop the fight. The writing is crisp, the mood deliberately retro and the pacing superb.
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