2nd book in the Billy Nichols series; Historical Mystery.

Eddie Muller is the son of a newspaper reporter, and that background really helped him create a very well described late 1940s California scene (at least I thought he was, though his official website does not note this fact in his biography). Muller's first book in the series, The Distance, has won the Shamus Award, the Mystery Ink Gumshoe Award for Best first Novel and was nominated for the Anthony, Macavity, and Barry awards. A non-fiction work that Muller apparently worked on between the Nichols books was nominated for the Edgar and Macavity awards (The Art of Noir). Unfortunately, his second Billy Nichols book is seemingly lacking in nominations or awards (and none of his other books has so far been nominated for anything).

The first book was deeply involved in Nichols working as "Mr. Boxing," the premier boxing journalist in California. The second book, on the other hand, while including some boxing activity, has Nichols submerge himself into the world of financial/business journalism. The man who Nichols helped put in jail was apparently involved in a financial fraud/scam in California, involving some high ranking people (or at least highly regarded people). Nichols, though reluctant to help Burney Sanders, decides to examine the situation and acquires help along the way from one of the best financial journalist of the era (though he is now working outside journalism). Along the way Nichols ends up trying to help Sanders former secretary, who apparently had fled the scene when the trouble started in the first book.

A very detailed, imaginative historical noir book that is not as good as the first book in the series (the first book was given 4.60 stars out of 5; the second barely makes it over 4 stars). ( )