Model For Murder

Ben Gates #2

by Robert Kyle, Robert McGinnis (Illustrator)

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

A pseudonym used by Robert Terrall.

Reviews

[Jure · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one doesn't waste no time with the usual introductions. On the first page there's a mandatory "I'm private investigator" monologue, next we learn that we are in New York and that our gumshoe is already on the case. He's about to handle $500 to a girl blackmailing his client (page two) when she starts shooting at him through the closed door. And then, for some strange reason (or is she simply pissed off at herself for failing to kill him?), she decides to shoot herself!?! And we are still in the middle of the third page!

More here (review includes spoilers!):
http://a60books.blogspot.ie/2015/01/m...

[Benjamin Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun noir. I love the narrator's sense of humor—dry wit with a dash of cynicism.

Ben Gates is asked to pay a girl some cash on behalf of some rich dame. When he gets to the girl's apartment, bullets fly out of the door, and when he gets inside she's dead. This leads to a wild goose chase featuring hoodlums, call girls, jazz bars, stock market manipulation, counterfeit money, a taxi driver in Cleveland, and no small amount of booze and aspirin.

This was just fun to read. Pure paperback pleasure. Kyle (whose real last name was Terrall) brings on the revelations fast and furious. I could not read the book when I was drowsy or I'd miss crucial info. Adding to the fun, Gates made sure Kyle is in over his head and kept me wondering how the hero was going to get out alive and catch the baddies. Good stuff.