cover image Shellshock

Shellshock

Richard S. Prather. Tor Books, $16.95 (346pp) ISBN 978-0-312-93034-9

Shell Scott, like Mike Hammer, has been around a long time, though these days Shell has more of Jim Rockford about himor perhaps it's the other way around. Some 40 million copies of Prather's hard-boiled though humorous private eye have been sold since he first appeared in 1950, but Prather's newest novel zips along and still seems as fresh and well plotted as the first. Shell is on the money when it comes to bulldozing his way through thugs, though for a womanizer he displays a refreshing uncertainty with lithesome beauties. This time, Shell is hired by ex-gangster Claude Romanelle to find his ""little girl.'' The case turns into a nightmare that pits him against Romanelle's former partners in crime. It doesn't take the L.A. investigator long to find ``little Spree,'' now a buxom, beautiful 26-year-old, nor does it take him long to be both seduced by another woman or to discover he is being led by the nose by Romanelle. Then Romanelle turns up missing, and people start trying to kill Shell and kidnap Spree. Shell Scott and PI fans will not be disappointed. (November 25)