Caper!

Parnell Hall, the writer of both the Puzzle Lady and the Stanley Hastings series of mysteries, has released his latest in the Hastings series: Caper.   Stanley is a private detective whose only detecting ability is in his expertise with trip and fall cases in his work for an ambulance chasing, sleazeball lawyer.  In this newest book, Hastings is approached by a young woman looking to have him track down the movements of her teenage daughter, who she says is working after school as a prostitute.  She tells him that she wants her daughter followed and brought safely out of her situation.  What Hastings does not know, is that the "mother" is not the mother of the girl in question, and when the daughter's supposed John is found dead, who looks the guiltiest?  Stanley Hastings himself.  The bumbling private eye then spends his time working out how to clear his name without revealing his close involvement. 

I used to read these and thought it might be fun to read a new one.  But now I find that the detective's bumbling ways just annoy me.  Perhaps I have read one Stanley Hastings/Parnell Hall too many.