Another in the long, always readable Schmidt series about an NYC homicide detective. This one involves a corpse found in a display window at "Graham's" a big NYC department store like Gimbels or Macy's. ( )

Frankly this reads to me like a parody of a fifty's hard boiled police procedural. The writing is at best serviceable although it not infrequently sinks to being leaden. The plot is so full of holes it resembles a piece of Swiss cheese. None of the characters rise above the status of cardboard cutout. Even given the context of the time the writing is notably misogynistic and homophobic although it does avoid adding racist to that list of failings due to the lack of any acknowledged characters of colour or from 'ethnic' communities despite being set in New York in the 1950s. ( )