No Exit Press - False Pretenses by Arthur Lyons

ABOUT THE BOOK

this title is out of stock indefinitely

Jacob Asch is taking a trip down memoryless lane, chasing down octogenarians and testing their sanity for twenty-five dollars an hour when he receives two calls from prospective clients. One caller cancels at the last second; the other, a man named Jacobi, hires Asch for a fool's errand. Asch returns to his office to find a corpse sitting at his desk, his brains splattered on Asch's rented walls.

As a suspect in the murder, Asch falls into the hands of some tough L.A. detectives. But as he starts investigating the killing himself his luck gets better: he falls in with an icy blonde Hollywood detective who cheerfully calls herself The Bitch Goddess. She asks Asch's help investigating this murder and two related killings.

Balancing on an erotic high wire above a sprawling land of junkies, mayhem, and murder, Asch has a dream woman in his bed and every man's worst nightmare lurking at his door. For somewhere in the reality of crime and corruption in L.A., the concrete-hard truth about a killing spree and one cancelled phone call will all come together...

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

'Jacob Asch is a saint with a gun all Chandlered up and ready to Hammett if necessary!'
- The Guardian

'Asch is the very composite of the species, genus Californiensis'
- New York Times Book Review

'a first-rate private eye story, one of the best ever written'
- Newsday

'Lyons is the author setting the standards for today's hard-boiled novel'
- Mystery Magazine