ROBERT REEVES – Cellini Smith, Detective. Houghtono Mifflin, hardcover, 1943. Pony Books #54, paperback, 1946.

   Cellini Smith ain’t doing so good financially. So when the hoboes offer him twenty six dollars and ninety-four cents to find a murderer, he doesn’t have to be asked thrice.

   Somebody’s murdered one of the hoboes’ own. And they demand the perpetrator be handed over to them, for hobo styled justice.

   Turns out the murdered hobo wasn’t any ordinary hobo. The nogoodnik son of a mining mogul, he’d absconded with a map of a hitherto unclaimed, untapped hubnerite mine in California — a good source of tungsten, better than a goldmine in times of war. He’d strike out on his own, and make it rich, out and under from his oppressive daddy.

   But to start the mine running, he needed about $20,000. Who better to get money from than the local mob boss? So he gets the money for the mine, and immediately starts fooling around with the mobster’s moll.

   Real smart.

   And now he’s dead. Big surprise.

   Still, Cellini Smith investigates the thing, laying his life on the line for nickels.

   He solves the thing methodically, calling all the suspects and cops into a room for a presentation of his inductive genius.

         ____

   Middle of the road, done fairly well in a unique voice. But of course, to me, any authentic hardboiled detective novel from the 40’s done fairly well is worth reading. Your mileage may vary.