The Devil’s Daughter

Slick pacing and well-drawn details strengthen screenwriter Greisman’s otherwise familiar debut, a mid-century noir concerning crooked cops and disappeared daughters. In 1957 New York City, private investigator Jack Coffey is persuaded by childhood acquaintance Richie Costello—now the executive secretary to the archbishop of New York—to locate Lucy, the 16-year-old daughter of a powerful parishioner named Louis Garret. Louis, a filthy-rich Manhattan financier, is offering 10 grand as a retainer and another 10 as a bonus if Jack brings his daughter home safe and sound. However, after consultations with an associate of Louis’s and a friend of Lucy’s, Jack struggles to determine if Lucy is really the innocent girl her father implies, or if she poses a threat to the people around her. When Lucy’s rumored boyfriend, handsome philanderer Rex Halsey, is found dead in the East River, Jack realizes he’s caught in a web far more complicated than he initially imagined, and before long, he’s chasing down mobsters in hopes they don’t pick him off first. Though seasoned genre fans will find much of the plotting routine, Coffey, who pals around with famous actors and jazz musicians, is a hugely winning protagonist, and Greisman keeps his foot on the gas throughout. A sequel would be welcome. Agent: Adam Chromy, Movable Type. (Jan.)