NILES N. PEEBLES – Blood Brother, Blood Brother. Pyramid X-2042, paperback original, 1969.

   There’s not much known about the author. It does appear to be his real name; Hubin’s Crime Fiction IV lists possible birth and death dates for him as 1928 and 1980, respectively. The first adventure of private eye Ross McKellar was entitled See the Red Blood Run, published a year earlier than this one, also by Pyramid. This is the second, and this was it. There are no others.

   McKellar describes himself as underemployed, and as definitely not the independent type. He’ll do any kind of job that pays money. He is as admitted admirer of Hammett and Chandler, but in this case at least there are no mean streets to go down. An old buddy now a big name in the pubic relations business needs big help. A profitable blackmailing scheme seems to be backfiring. McKellar’s investigations are conducted in the world of high finance, and not at all in the deep dark shadows of the underworld.

   When it comes time to cuddle the old buddy’s widow after he’s gone, a woman he’s loved in silence all these years, McKellar suddenly becomes shy. Hands-offish. That’s the kind of guy he is.

   Some envelopes are missing and have to be chased around. Interesting, but not intriguing. Catching the murdering blackmailee is not the work of brilliant deduction, but is the result of a gimmick instead…

   For what it’s worth, the book is easy to get through, and it has a pretty good twist at the end. It should also be noted that whoever wrote the synopsis on the back cover pretty obviously never read any of the story at all.