John Denson has always admired the classic hardboiled detectives Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but in his own private-eye work he is more of a soft-boiled sleuth favoring screw-top wines and refusing to carry a gun. The moment Pamela Yew walks into Denson s office and introduces herself as a detective working for Coyote, the San Francisco Prostitutes Union, he is beguiled by her beauty and he quickly agrees to help her hunt for a homicidal pimp. The pimp, it seems, is hiding in Cayuse, Oregon, which just happens to be Denson s home town. All Denson has to do is act as Pamela s decoy by...

Soft-boiled Seattle sleuth John Denson, first introduced in Decoys, is hot on the trail of crime once again in this second Denson mystery. 30 for a Harry takes its inspiration from a bit of newspaper lore the legend of Harry Karafin, who after three decades on The Philadelphia Inquirer was exposed for using his position as an investigative reporter to blackmail area businessmen. Drawing on his own background as a former intelligence agent and newspaper reporter, Richard Hoyt sends Detective Denson undercover at the Seattle Star to search for the paper s own harry. In his search, Denson...