Find this Woman - Richard S. Prather

Opening line: "She still had all her clothes on and was standing in the blue light from a baby spot when I came in, but I knew it wasn't going to last because the way she was moving I could tell it was that kind of dance. I was glad it was that kind of dance"

Finding a woman isn't usually any trouble for Private Investigator Shell Scott. In fact, lovelies wearing very little clothing, keen to get undressed and practically throwing themselves at him is not an uncommon occurrence. Such a detective should have no trouble finding Sweet Lorraine, an exotic dancer at the Pelican Club, and things are looking promising. "At no time in the history of 'Sheldon Scott, Investigations', had a case started in a more interesting fashion", he notes. Unfortunately getting to see her backstage is a little more of a problem, and that's even before he starts speaking to her about the actual missing girl in his investigation, Isabel Ellis. That's when his troubles start for real.

Although Sweet Lorraine appears to know nothing about Isabel, there are some tough guys who want to make sure that Scott takes his investigation no further and they have the means and muscle to stop him. It's going to be another case starting with bumps and bangs, and not the kind Scott usually deals with. Still, the leads look promising, as the previous detective on the case was last heard of at the Desert Inn in Las Vegas. It's Helldorado week, which means the city is crazier than ever, but Shell has a good drinking and womanising buddy there who might be able to fix things up for him. This case might not turn out to be a total loss after all.

Although it sounds like a lecherous comic crime caper, Find This Woman is actually serious business. The guys Scott is dealing with don't play around and there are a number of near death situations, and an all-out Las Vegas Helldorado bedlam to contend with that leave our LA detective rather shaken up. Certainly he acts more impetuously than usual and seems to have less patience when dealing with unhelpful contacts. It doesn't prevent him however from chasing any curvy blonde who might be up for it. Actually, to be more accurate, Find That Woman strikes a balance between hard-edged crime and Prather's usual wry and brilliantly written one-liner lechery. And when it turns out that the only identifying characteristic that might help Scott 'find this woman' is a old scar in a delicate hidden place, ...well what else did you expect?

Favourite lines (inevitably all lecherous in this one):

"The wide-eyed innocence of a brand new Eve bloomed in her face, but it was on a body that had been improved through two billion years".

"She was Woman, that's all, just sex on wheels in high gear and going downhill; no brakes and a hand on the horn".

"I like a woman to have luxuriant hair; that is, I'm of the apparently outmoded school that believes that a woman should look like a woman and not come out of a beauty shop looking as if she'd just had a man's haircut and, possibly, a shave". 

Reading notes: 1963 UK paperback first edition Frederick Muller, Gold Medal Original. 2'6 on the cover