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Mike Shayne #57
So Lush, So Deadly
Luscious Dotty De Rham liked her kicks weird and her sex kinky, and she had the looks and money to satisfy her every crazy craving. So, when Dotty's far-out husband ran out on her, she hired Mike Shayne to get him back.
At first Mike thought the job was a three-ring circus of fun and games, with the man-eating millionairess, a lustful love queen, and a tempting teenybopper all in the act. Then the murders started, and suddenly Mike was in a carnival of blackmail, arson, adultery and every other cardinal sin, as he raced along a high wire of danger where one false move would be his last…
MIKE SHAYNE, THE COOLEST PRIVATE EYE OF THEM ALL, SWINGS INTO RED-HOT ACTION IN ONE OF HIS GREATEST CASES OF MYSTERY AND MAYHEM.
At first Mike thought the job was a three-ring circus of fun and games, with the man-eating millionairess, a lustful love queen, and a tempting teenybopper all in the act. Then the murders started, and suddenly Mike was in a carnival of blackmail, arson, adultery and every other cardinal sin, as he raced along a high wire of danger where one false move would be his last…
MIKE SHAYNE, THE COOLEST PRIVATE EYE OF THEM ALL, SWINGS INTO RED-HOT ACTION IN ONE OF HIS GREATEST CASES OF MYSTERY AND MAYHEM.
158 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1968
35 people want to read
About the author
Brett Halliday
526 books64 followersAKA David Dresser
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 - February 4, 1977), primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Mike Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write. Dresser wrote non-series mysteries, westerns and romances under the names
Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.
Excerpt from Wikipedia:
Brett Halliday (July 31, 1904 - February 4, 1977), primary pen name of Davis Dresser, was an American mystery writer, best known for the long-lived series of Mike Shayne novels he wrote, and later commissioned others to write. Dresser wrote non-series mysteries, westerns and romances under the names
Asa Baker, Matthew Blood, Kathryn Culver, Don Davis, Hal Debrett, Anthony Scott, Peter Field, and Anderson Wayne.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 28, 2014
I just finished it two days ago and am already forgetting salient details; so not a memorable story.
It is an anachronism, a piece of detective fiction from the early 1960's when hippies were a new phenomenon and violence in detective work seemed to come with the territory. It is also a male fantasy kind of book; the detective gets propositioned a number of times; once by a lovely teenaged girl on her parents boat where he just happens to be naked; and another by a woman who ties him up (naked yet again) and tries to slip him a drug. He keeps swimming between boats in the marina in line with his work and evidently does not keep a bathing suit handy. But he keeps his head and says no to all the females who keep finding him naked on their boats. The whole idea makes me laugh, but that is OK, this book certainly does not take itself seriously.
The main question in the book is where is Mrs. De Rham? Is she throwing up in the head? Is she wandering around the deck of her boat with a bottle, drunk? And where is her husband? Off with the hippies? Why does that friend of her husband keep hanging around? Follow the money, just follow the money.
It is an anachronism, a piece of detective fiction from the early 1960's when hippies were a new phenomenon and violence in detective work seemed to come with the territory. It is also a male fantasy kind of book; the detective gets propositioned a number of times; once by a lovely teenaged girl on her parents boat where he just happens to be naked; and another by a woman who ties him up (naked yet again) and tries to slip him a drug. He keeps swimming between boats in the marina in line with his work and evidently does not keep a bathing suit handy. But he keeps his head and says no to all the females who keep finding him naked on their boats. The whole idea makes me laugh, but that is OK, this book certainly does not take itself seriously.
The main question in the book is where is Mrs. De Rham? Is she throwing up in the head? Is she wandering around the deck of her boat with a bottle, drunk? And where is her husband? Off with the hippies? Why does that friend of her husband keep hanging around? Follow the money, just follow the money.
January 1, 2023
A super rich thirty-year-old wife is drinking herself out, again, and has a fight with her three years younger husband in front of his friend on her fifty grand boat. She calls the captain down to witness the signing of a paper that cuts her hubby out her will. The next day in port, the captain is fired (for making a pass on the woman--he didn't) and the woman's lawyer gets nervous at all the movements she's making in her bank accounts. The lawyer calls Detective Mike Shayne to see what's going on and the red headed detective finds himself circling something fishy, though there's been no apparent crime committed. Shayne couldn't be more wrong.
This was not as enjoyable as the previous novel I read by Halliday because it's unclear what's going on beyond people getting hammered and getting sick of one another. There's actually a very clever crime that's been committed, but it's revealed so close to the end, the reader won't know what's exactly occurred unless they've been paying very close attention. And like Shayne, I didn't know what was going on until the very end.
Not helping is a hippie colony in Florida that is not written well. It's not as bad as an episode of Dragnet with it's cliches, but it's pretty close.
My favorite part of the book was the bar fight in the first few pages, but after that it was somewhat of a slog to get through. I enjoyed being in the book, but when it was completed I found myself disappointed in it's cleverness only being revealed in the end.
This was not as enjoyable as the previous novel I read by Halliday because it's unclear what's going on beyond people getting hammered and getting sick of one another. There's actually a very clever crime that's been committed, but it's revealed so close to the end, the reader won't know what's exactly occurred unless they've been paying very close attention. And like Shayne, I didn't know what was going on until the very end.
Not helping is a hippie colony in Florida that is not written well. It's not as bad as an episode of Dragnet with it's cliches, but it's pretty close.
My favorite part of the book was the bar fight in the first few pages, but after that it was somewhat of a slog to get through. I enjoyed being in the book, but when it was completed I found myself disappointed in it's cleverness only being revealed in the end.
January 7, 2026
This entry in the series is supposedly post-David Dresser. However this 1968 books reads unlike other post-Dressers as Dresser, himself. It's a good and satisfying tale with an ending somewhat unexpected. The tight writing makes this one especially good as Shayne is written to zip from location to location and follows the actual roads in Dade County. Impressive writing of locations. Even at sea.
The hippie part is very accurate. Heck, Williams Park in Downtown St. Petersburg was much the same a couple decades ago. I really liked that the writer, whoever that might be, writes of the attackers, one after another and another and so on. The endless amount attacking Shayne. Sounds nearly ridiculous, until learning pages later, the motivation as to why there were attacks. Nicely done.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of ten points.
The hippie part is very accurate. Heck, Williams Park in Downtown St. Petersburg was much the same a couple decades ago. I really liked that the writer, whoever that might be, writes of the attackers, one after another and another and so on. The endless amount attacking Shayne. Sounds nearly ridiculous, until learning pages later, the motivation as to why there were attacks. Nicely done.
Bottom line: I recommend this book. 8 out of ten points.
March 13, 2025
A bit slow (and dull) for a while but eventually it got going and things got more interesting. A pretty good story, although things got a bit hard to keep track of at the end.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews