When I discovered No Game for a Dame, Myer's first book in this series featuring Maggie Sullivan, it was a wonderful surprise. I loved that Maggie was a female private detective along the lines of the hard-boiled male protagonists in Chandler and Hammett that could really hold her own with the tough guys. In this sequel, Maggie Sullivan starts out with a missing person case that turns quickly to murder, and I was again swept away to the late 1930s mean streets of Dayton, Ohio.

Tough Cookie (which can be read as a stand alone) has all the elements you look for in a hard-boiled mystery: good old-fashioned detective footwork, a wealthy client, a ditzy dame, loyal servants, smooth-talking lotharios, hard liquor bottles in the desk drawer, fast cars, and gun-play. I couldn't put the book down, and while I guessed "who done it," I didn't care, because I was having so much fun, right down to the end that totally surprised me with a twist. I highly recommend Tough Cookie, and I can't wait for the next installment.