Book by EVANS, JOHN [BROWNE, HOWARD]

Raymond Wirtz as something everyone wants. His Grace, the Bishop Of Chicago; Lola North - "a girl who could turn out to be as pure as an ester lily or steeped in sin and fail to surprise you either way"; Louis Antuni, Chicago Godfather; Constance Benbrook, who "wasn't the type to curl up with anything as inanimate as a novel" and mysterious super criminal Jafar Baijan - all want what Wirtz has... the ultimate religious artefact. Private Eye Paul Pine is right in the middle. In the middle of a deadly obstacle race strewn with copses, cops and beautiful women.

Paul Pine is hired by a Nebraska couple to track down their missing daughter, Laura Fremont, who fled to Chicago and has not been heard from in over nine months. The trail leads to a bar that covers for a sleazy brothel, several run down apartment buildings and finally a night club in Chicago. Along the way Pine discovers a slew of girlfriends and roommates of Laura’s and two strangled women who had at one time known Fremont under one of her many aliases.

The Taste of Ashes is Howard Browne's tribute to Ross MacDonald. Like MacDonald's Lew Archer series, the core solution to the book's mystery lies hidden behind deceit, human foibles, and family wealth.