Her eyes were wide set, clear as a newborn’s, and a pale shade of blue that bordered on slate gray. I suddenly wanted to find paint that shade and redo my whole house with it.

Full disclosure: I got my e-book of Dark Blonde free from the author, David H. Fears. I reviewed his first Mike Angel novel, Dark Quarry, a while back, and he e-,mailed me to ask when I was going to review the next one, Dark Lake. I replied, frankly, that I didn’t like that book as well, and I thought the level of graphic sex (it’s about human sex trafficking) was probably a little high for the readers of this blog. He then sent me a copy of Dark Blonde and asked me to try that one, and indeed I like it better (though I’m omitting the cover art from this review. It’s not pornographic, but it’s a little racy for the room).

Private eye Mike Angel, as you may recall from my previous review, is a New York detective relocated to Chicago. He has a partner, a retired New York cop named Rick Anthony, and a secretary named Molly, who is also his girlfriend. In Dark Blonde, he is hired by Julia Gateswood, former beauty queen and now wife of a promising senatorial candidate, to look for her sister, who has disappeared. It doesn’t take long to find the sister, or rather her body, which is discovered decapitated in the Gateswoods’ summer house. Julia wants Mike to stay on the case, and he is ready to do just about anything for the gorgeous Julia. Instead of the police interfering, Chicago police reformer O. W. Wilson (a real historical character) particularly asks Mike to get involved and help out. It all comes down to old family secrets and contemporary corruption in the end.

Although David H. Fears’s writing plainly hearkens back to the pulp authors of old, like Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane (especially Spillane), and is done very well in my opinion, Mike Angel distinguishes himself in a couple of ways. One is that Fears has boldly embraced the obvious fact that private eye stories are fantasy stories, and has added some plain fantasy elements—Mike’s dead father gives him psychic warnings when he’s in danger (oddly, Mike generally ignores them), and also warns him wordlessly through a tingling in a facial scar.

There’s a further element of fantasy too, I think. I’ve written before that private eye stories are a form of male wish-fulfillment. Pulp detectives tend to live lives that ordinary males envy. Mike is enviable—in a way that stretches credibility—in his sex life. It’s not just that beautiful women constantly throw themselves at him. That pretty much goes with the genre. But Mike also has a gorgeous and sweet girlfriend who doesn’t mind that he strays, as long as he keeps it a secret from her. This relationship adds a level of depth to Mike’s character that a lot of pulp detectives lack (a very good thing). On the other hand, I find it pretty hard to believe in—especially in the early 1960s, before the sexual revolution.

But if you can buy that, there’s lots to like in Dark Blonde for the hard-boiled fan. Cautions for language, violence, and graphic sexual situations.