Yesterday I reviewed a book that attempted to take up the mantle of Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. I didn’t like it.

Tonight, I review a book that does a much better job of portraying a hard-boiled investigator. Not anywhere near Chandler’s league, but if Bill Krieger had had the audacity to try it, I think he’d have done a better job than last night’s author.

Which is not to say this book is great. Just better.

The hero of Working Stiff is Frank Leland, a New York City private eye in the 1970s. He’s a large, fat man, constantly overeating for comfort as he deals with the trauma of divorce and separation from his wife and young daughter. He used to be in Overeaters Anonymous, but has fallen off the wagon.

Frank is hired by the president of a mid-level advertising agency – only to be appalled to discover that one of their employees, a beautiful young woman, is lying stabbed to death in her office. What his client wants is for Frank to hide the body… temporarily.

Tempted by the money offered, Frank takes the job but surreptitiously calls a friend, a woman police detective, who manages to come in and take control of the crime scene without revealing that Frank dropped the dime. Then the murder weapon – a pair of scissors – is discovered on another employee’s desk, and he is arrested. That employee’s pregnant wife then asks Frank to prove her husband’s innocence. They don’t have much money to pay, but Frank is sentimental enough to take the case anyway, out of compassion.

Frank discovers that the advertising world is a fouler den of serpents than he ever imagined. Before he’s done he’ll have to make hard choices between lesser and greater evils, ethical decisions that will leave him – and the reader – mired in insoluble conundrums.

The story in Working Stiff is pretty good, though I think the police procedures are a little loosely portrayed. I questioned some of the period details – were computers used in many offices in 1977? Did people talk about reality shows and service dogs in those days? I don’t recall that they did, but my memory can’t always be relied on.

But the real weakness was in the writing. The prose here wasn’t awful, but it was (like its hero) a little flaccid. Sentences could have been shortened by stronger word selection. Whole sentences could have been excised, and the writing would have been more effective. The author has talent, but needs to sharpen his tools.

Still, Working Stiff wasn’t bad, especially if you’re looking for a detective hero out of the ordinary. Cautions for troubling adult themes.