James O. Causey (1924–2003)

This is an odd book. It's actually pretty well written. I can't think of a single passage that made me cringe like some of these hard-boiled authors do when they try to get fancy in their description of something. Causey knows how to put together good sentences. What he doesn't know how to do is to build characters. There aren't any good guys here - but that isn't the problem. Dan J. Marlowe wrote books with no good guys, and they are great. Causey just can't quite pull it off, although the story will pull you through to the end. It is driven more by double-, triple-, and quadruple-crosses than by anything else. He got so clever with the plotting, he forgot to put some soul into it.… (more)