Pin-Up Mystery Books in Order

The Pin-Up books are Ames having fun with hardboiled mystery. They center on private investigator Jake Palmer, a Los Angeles detective who keeps finding trouble in the glossy, slightly ridiculous world of models, calendars, photographers, and publicity people. On the surface, everything looks playful and bright. Underneath, people lie, cheat, blackmail, and kill.

That tension is the point. The series borrows some of the energy of old Hollywood private-eye stories, but it does not pretend to live in the past. Jake is a modern character, and the books have plenty of present-day attitude. Still, the pin-up angle gives the stories a distinct look and voice. Murder shows up in rooms full of makeup lights, gossip, staged smiles, and carefully managed image.

These are brisk mysteries with a lighter touch than some of Ames's darker thrillers, though the crimes are still real and the danger still lands. If you want sarcasm, style, and a detective who has to work through glamour to get at the mess underneath, the Pin-Up books are a good change of pace.