The Mike Shayne mystery series was one of the longest running and best received of the many mystery series in the fifties and sixties. Brett Halliday was a pseudonym for Davis Dresser although it later - after 1958 - became a house name under which others such as Terrell wrote additional Mime Shayne mysteries. No matter who penned them, all of the Shayne books are well-written, well-plotted, and fun to read.

Big, redheaded Mike Shayne is a private eye out of Miami, good buddies with police chief Will Gentry and reporter Tom O'Rourke. Lucy Hamilton is his gorgeous secretary who he has an on again off again
love affair with. The Shayne books were written to have wide appeal and hint at sex and murder without showing much. These are mainstream mysteries, not pulpy or noir events.

Here, in a mystery so well written that the pages practically turn themselves, Shayne gets involved with stolen jewels, a wealthy Cuban expat's estate, a gambling lady, and various Miami dive bars. The story gets a bit complicated, but it moves real well. If you like private eye stories, you won't go wrong with this one. ( )