M. E. CHABER – The Flaming Man. Milo March #18. Holt Rinehart & Winston, hardcover, 1969. Paperback Library, paperback, June 1970; cowl artwork by Robert McGinnis. Steeger Books, softcover, 2021.
Milo March isn’t fairly a personal eye, however as an freelance insurance coverage investigator, he’s the subsequent neatest thing. He’s employed on this case to deal with a constructing fireplace in L.A. that occurred quickly after the riots there. Worse, three our bodies are discovered within the ashes, all three burnt past identification. For the reason that proprietor of the constructing has disappeared, it’s assumed he’s one in every of three.
As very long time thriller readers, we all know higher than that, don’t we?
On a hardboiled scale starting from 1 to 10, the perfect I can provide is 2.5, and at that, I feel I’m stretching it. The tempo is leisurely. Nothing a lot occurs till it does and the guide is over. Milo could be a little robust when he must be, but it surely doesn’t occur usually sufficient. He does do a number of consuming, and I imply so much. He has a bottle or glass of liquid spirits in hand that averages out to almost each different web page. He’s at one time pressured to drink Cokes steadily over a number of pages. By no means once more, he says.
It is a guide that no less than one reader discovered entertaining sufficient to maintain studying, however taking two months to take action is one other lengthy stretch of time that I believed possibly I ought to let you know about. You may take it from there.
