Wild Wives

Fiction. A classic of hardboiled fiction, Charles Willeford's WILD WIVES is amoral, sexy, and brutal. Written in a sleazy San Francisco hotel in the early 1950's while on leave from the Army, Willeford creates a tale of deception featuring the crooked detective Jacob C. Blake and his nemesis -- a beautiful, insane young woman who is the wife of a socially prominent San Francisco architect. Blake becomes entangled in a web of deceit, intrigue and multiple murders in this exciting period tale. Mr. Willeford never puts a foot wrong, and this is truly an entertainment to relish. -- The New Yorker.