Vintage Suspense Paperback: ‘I Like It Cool’

From killercoversoftheweek.com:

In I Like It Cool, Johnny Amsterdam sets out to help Sandra Tyson, the sexy, club-singing younger sister of a deceased army buddy, who wants him to track down Helen Tate, a Hollywood fashion model who was on her way to visit Sandra, but never turned up. “She was supposed to contact me as soon as she arrived [in New York], two days ago,” Sandra tells Amsterdam. “I’m afraid something’s happened to her. I’ve got to find her. Right away.” Naturally, the case is nowhere near as easy or straightforward as it sounds. There are homicides and deceptions and one embittered or lost soul after the next with whom Amsterdam and Gross must contend. Lawrence wasn’t Raymond Chandler, but he claimed enough of a cynical tone for a detective yarn of his era:

We walked uptown together, along Fifth Avenue where the summertime crop of rustic sightseers gaped and gawked at the elegant shop windows. You could pick them out easily. They were wide-eyed with wonder, their necks craned to see the sights, their inevitable cameras hung from their shoulders. To the discerning eye, the rubes stood out like cactus growing on Fifth Avenue…(read more)