Lime Pit

Lime Pit by Valin, Jonathan. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780380554423.

The first Harry Stoner mystery Harry Stoner is a private eye in the classic tradition. A loner with a history of failed relationships with women and all-too-successful relationships with bottles of scotch, hes unable to look away from the worlds corruption and unable to avoid trying--futiley--to do something about it. His latest hopeless cause is Cindy Ann, a teenage hooker. Neither pretty nor engaging, she doesnt have much to offer at all, and somehow that makes her disappearance all the more disturbing for Stoner, who knows what can happen to girls nobody wants. And hes got a sick hunch that it happened to Cindy Ann, right across the Cincinnati border. As tough as Spenser in his heyday, Stoner is as hard-boiled as they come, but hes a lot more than a standard-issue pulp P.I. The story may be ugly, but in Valins hands it has the brutal grace of a world-class boxing match.