Polo, Anyone?: A Nick Polo Mystery

One of the helpful things about the way in which modern authors have experimented with the private eye genre is that their various innovations and deconstructions have only served to demonstrate how nearly perfect is the original form. In the end, we keep coming back, and I hope always will, to the lone wolf tough guy--no girlfriend, no wife, no boyfriend, no hulking and conveniently amoral sidekick to do the dirty work, no supernatural cases, no gimmicks of any kind.Within the select group that is still writing these throwback series, there are a few who really stand out. Loren D. Estleman (author of the Amos Walker series) is pretty much in a league of his own. Then, in the next tier, you've got Jonathan Valin (Harry Stoner), Peter Corris (Cliff Hardy), and a couple more, including Jerry Kennealy and his hero, Nick Polo.In Polo Anyone ?, the second entry in the series, ex-cop, ex-jailbird, San Francisco private eye, Nick Polo, is hired to expose a suspected card sharp in a local businessmen's regular poker game. This proves fairly easy, but he soon finds himself embroiled in a case of industrial espionage, featuring hostile cops, a seedy fellow private eye, a femme fatale or two, and a rapidly mounting body count. It's all entirely conventional, and I mean that in the very best sense of the word. GRADE : B+