WHIT HARRISON – Strip the Town Naked. Beacon B-350, paperback original, 1960.

   Whit Harrison is a pseudonym of the prolific Harry Whittington. I’ve read and enjoyed a few books by him, and I read a recommendation for this title a while back, where and by whom now forgotten. It’s another of those books that I bought intending to read soon that has been staring accusingly at me from the to-be-read-soon for far too long.

   This is a typical Whittington (or what, with my limited exposure to him, I take to be a typical Whittington) in that a man falsely imprisoned has returned on his release from jail to his small home town to find the real crook.

   Vic Radford had been one of two partners in an investment company when $92,000 had been stolen from the company safe. Only he and his partner had known the money was there and his partner had an alibi. Radford’s return causes ripples in a town where everybody knows each other, and reignites tensions and not a few passions.

   It took a while to get into the book, but the pace of the story eventually took hold, and I raced to the conclusion.

   It’s really just a potboiler written to the Whittington formula that gives an enjoyable couple of hours. One complaint is that Vic has too many sexual encounters in the two days or so that it takes to clear up the case. All the women that we meet in the town are not only available but more than willing, including his wife, whose masochistic tendencies Radford is happy to oblige.