You're Lonely When You're Dead

Very good book.I had read 50 years back.Even now it is interesting.

"You're Lonely When You Are Dead" is the first of three Vic Malloy novels that Chase published in 1949 with the next to in quick succession the following year. Set in fictional "Orchid City," which Chase places on the Southern California coast, but near "Coral Gables," a deep water port with rough neighborhoods. British writer Chase (as most readers know him) relied on books and movies for his knowledge about America and some times it showed.Nevertheless, this private eye novel explodes with violence and Chase quite successfully throws every trick of the genre into this one. The client, of course, is a Richmond who suspects his new wife of horrendous things and wants it handled confidentially. Vic, appreciative of this aspect of the private eye genre, tries his damnedest to keep things under wraps because otherwise none of the rich ones in Orchid City will appreciate his business. Being one of the good guys, but keeping the local police at arm's length is how these guys operate although it some times seems they are jumping off the Titanic without a life preserver.Vic doesn't operate alone, but has a whole squad of wisecracking agents to back him up. The new young wife is hated by the wheelchair bound daughter, has pals at nightclubs, and a shady past, and she can charm the socks off anyone. But one of his agents gets knocked off, Vic is taking no prisoners and the mystery of who's behind it and who deepens.This one is absorbing, well-written, and does a great job of capturing the rough, sardonic world these fictional detectives moved in.