LUCKY DOG

L.A. shamus Leo Bloodworth (Sleeping Dog, 1985, etc.) walks off with both best-of-show and worst-of-same honors in the competition among the nine stories (1988–99) collected here. In the title story and “Rappin’ Dog,” he’s teamed with high-school prodigy Serendipity Dahlquist, the least convincing sidekick in hard-boiled history, whose incongruously wide-eyed narration of “Mr. Bloodworth’s” adventures constantly distracts the eye from the kid’s sleight-of-mind. Nor do a pair of tales-for-hire, the warmed-over Philip Marlowe pastiche “Sad-Eyed Blonde” and the retro Hollywood Dracula-has-risen-again “Vampire Dreams,” inspire much more confidence in Lochte’s handling of voice. But things look up when the scene shifts to New Orleans. In the deft, ironic anecdote “A Tough Case to Figure,” Leo, in a nifty walk-on, is upstaged by an even slyer cameo by local p.i. Terry Manion (The Neon Smile, 1995, etc.). Manion gets a meatier case of his own in “Get the Message,” a straightforward whodunit as intricately clued as vintage Ellery Queen. And Lochte’s gift for palming the evidence without tipping off wary readers saves “Murder at Mardi Gras” and “A Murder of Import,” a pair of talkathons in which Manion’s mentor J.J. Legendre shares the limelight with too many suspects to keep in your head without a diagram.

Best of all, though, is “Mad Dog,” in which Leo and a bunch of other Hollywood types are tricked onto a radio talk program so that, all unwilling, they can solve a 30-year-old murder on the air. It’s a classic illustration of how, put under pressure, conversation becomes drama.