Review of "Ruby Tuesday: An Eddie Dancer Mystery" by Mike Harrison

Canadian Private Eye Eddie Dancer is back in this third novel of the series. It's a tale of a man who's decided to find a better way to end a bizarre lawsuit. Advertising executive Paul Miller finds one of modern society's cliche's come home to roost when the man he saw hit his wife sues him for assault for coming to his spouse's rescue. Miller offers to fight the larger man, a tough named Victor Shrivers, for the money he's seeking in damages in exchange for dropping the assault charge. But Miller's wife can't stand to see her husband take a beating for her (or worse, for the money) and asks Eddie to help. Things start to spiral out of control when the fight becomes a hot topic in the media. As Eddie starts to investigate Shrivers and finds there's a trail of battered women in his wake, most of them ex-wives or girlfrieds, he's convinced he's got to put this guy away. Our man Dancer has had his problems in this area, and knows Shrivers won't be able to stop himself. Someone has to stop him.

You have to admire author Mike Harrison's style here. He does the hard-bitten PI patter as good as Dashiell Hammet ever did. Its a quick guilty pleasure of a detective novel that pays off with amusing dialog and a couple of nice surprises.