Happy heavenly birthday to William Powell.
This book is a sequel to The Thin Man’s Wife but since Nick Charles was murdered at the end of that novel, Hack began this one with the classic writers cop-out that the previous story was all a dream. This is one of Hack’s most carefully researched novels since he used his own extensive personal experience with alcohol-related impotence in writing it. The result is a book that is honestly pretty uncomfortable to read, although the many anal sex scenes between Detective Jonny and Nora Charles are diverting.