John and Susan take off for Mexico with a million's worth of diamonds, accompanied by John's two service buddies and his lovely assistant Juanita, who 'was prettier than Lupe Velez and could handle a gun or a client with equal ease'.īobby Underwood is a master of telling a good story full of intriguing adventure, romance, and scattered humor without a wasted word. She was what I’d hoped for, what every guy hoped for.” She was the reason I’d fought so hard to make it back. She was diamonds in my pocket whose value was nothing next to her soft lips and the feel of her fingers on the back of my neck. She was a car parked overlooking the Pacific while we necked and forgot about the million bucks sitting on the floorboard. She was Hearst Castle and Coney Island and Hollywood Premieres.

She was sleeping in on Saturdays so you could make love to her on white sheets with the roar of the ocean just down the beach. She was lunch at the Chili Bowl and dinner and a dance at the Cocoanut Grove.

“Mike was a pack of Lucky Strike’s, a box of Whitman’s Chocolates and a pair of silk stockings all rolled into one. Susan, or “Mike”, as our hero John calls her, is in a bind with a couple of gangsters over a valise full of diamonds. She has long blonde hair that comes in waves and sparkles when the sun hits it, and a voice made for saying romantic things when it gets dark.” “…she’s short but packed with lovely, graceful curves. Picture a handsome P.I., ex-Air force pilot, fresh from being shot down in the war, meeting a beautiful woman who reminds you of the extraordinarily alluring Veronica Lake. Take a Beautiful Detour back to the latter days of WWII when men were men, and women were women. This fantastic collection of nostalgia crime noirs contains three of my all-time favorites from the pen of Bobby Underwood.

Lovely war book review