Helpful Score: 1
Originally published in 1965. From current perspective, this is a send-up (with a wink) of the hard-boiled private eye novel. This is a hard-boiled private eye story the way _Johnny Dangerously_ was a gangster movie. Unknown if it was originally intended to be funny.
Someone threatens, then kills, Tex, who plays for the fictional Lakeview Otters ice hockey team. Johnny Canuck, private eye, solves the murder and prevents at least one more murder. Johnny has to fight off many gorgeous women (all 'stacked,' of course, with gorgeous gams) when he is not hurting or getting hurt by gangsters. Like cartoon characters, he (and his adversaries) seem to recover quickly from a surprising number of gun butts and saps to the head. Characters are not completely cartoonish. The good guys/gals are likeable; the bad guys are appropriately unlikable and have some depth. Solution to the murder is clever. Plot is not particularly well developed, but does have some depth. A quick (190 pages) amusing story.
Someone threatens, then kills, Tex, who plays for the fictional Lakeview Otters ice hockey team. Johnny Canuck, private eye, solves the murder and prevents at least one more murder. Johnny has to fight off many gorgeous women (all 'stacked,' of course, with gorgeous gams) when he is not hurting or getting hurt by gangsters. Like cartoon characters, he (and his adversaries) seem to recover quickly from a surprising number of gun butts and saps to the head. Characters are not completely cartoonish. The good guys/gals are likeable; the bad guys are appropriately unlikable and have some depth. Solution to the murder is clever. Plot is not particularly well developed, but does have some depth. A quick (190 pages) amusing story.
