The Philip St. Ives series was written by Ross Thomas under the Oliver Bleeck pseudonym. I can't decide, after reading this first in the series, whether St. Ives more resembles Archie Goodwin or Dortmunder or even Stanley Hastings, probably a combination of each.
St. Ives has developed a reputation for being an honest go-between, that is, he delivers money to kidnappers, ransom demands; an intermediary who can be trusted not to rip off either party. So when a famous antique African shield is stolen from a museum and the thieves request $250,000 in small bills for its return, St, Ives is a logical choice to deliver the money.
Being an exceedingly cautious man, he decides to check out a few things, especially after the body of the security guard is found. Then the man's wife commits suicide, then we learn the museum director's husband was killed in a car accident four weeks earlier, a crooked cop who tried to horn in on the deal with St. Ives is murdered, and things get a bit complicated. Of course since they were written in the sixties, everyone needed to use a pay phone and hotel rooms were $16 a night and $250,000 was a heck of a lot of money.
It' s a good story with the conversation so reminiscent of some of my favorite characters that I will most certainly read the rest of the books in the series.
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