Sex, lies, and a Hollywood Private Eye; THE NEVER WAS GIRL is the standard smoke and mirrors murder mystery which leverages off the traditional whodunSex, lies, and a Hollywood Private Eye; THE NEVER WAS GIRL is the standard smoke and mirrors murder mystery which leverages off the traditional whodunit formula commonplace with lone wolf detective stories.
Published in 1964, THE NEVER WAS GIRL is a clever and surprisingly complex piece of pulp fiction centered around a missing bombshell presumed dead and protagonist, Rick Holman, the private eye to the stars and well renowned Hollywood Fixer who must solve the case before he either ends up as another murder statistic or his libero is drained forever... safe to say there's a lot of sex and all too wanton women eager to please Holman for, really, no reason at all. It adds to the cheesy charm of these books.
As to be expected, the narrative generally follows a question and answer routine as Holman delves into the group of suspects, all known to each other and all equally as shifty as the next. Author Carter Brown manages to weave some tantalizing tidbits of information and backstory into these dialogue heavy sequences which progresses the plot nicely; a common method the author uses more broadly than just the Holman mysteries.
While the ending was predictable, I had a great time reading Holman's steady progression into solving the case. True, the powers of deductive reasoning are far from being on par with Sherlock but the methods Holman uses sure are fun to read. ...more