A classic LA detective novel - loved it. The opening paragraph says it all:

"It was about eleven o'clock in the morning, mid-october, with the sun not shining, and a look of hard rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder-blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and didn't care who knew it. I was everything the well-dressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars."