Lidell has some misgivings about working for the mobster, but he figures that the mobster did not want the cult leader dead since the blame would fall directly back on him. The mobster promises Lidell that Lidell will not merely be fingering the missing cult leader for a kill. In this particular tale, Lidell, who works out of NYC, is hired by a Lousiana mobster to go down to New Orleans and find a missing cult leader.

Kane's tales are easy reading and lots of fun if you like this genre.įrank Kane's Johnny Lidell is a tough-talking, tough-acting PI in the old-style hardboiled tradition. It's a Lidell story and that means that there are shootouts and bodies appearing left and right and Lidell can never be sure who he can rely on and who is after him.Lidell is a typical hardboiled PI in the traditional sense. There are fistfights and gangsters here as well as mysterious preachers in the bayou and corrupt back-country sheriffs. This Lidell story has everything from the setting in New Orleans to the blonde detective who seems to have spent five long years longing for Lidell's return. Lidell later hypothesizes that the cult temple was a setup for a blackmail scheme and for getting society folks hooked on junk. After they get reacquainted, they secretly enter the cult temple and witness a drug- induced orgy led by a tall brunette.

Once in New Orleans, it turns out that Lidell used to spend a bit of time there five years earlier and left behind a striking blonde who also works as a private investigator and she was a long-term steamy romance for him at one time. Lidell is a typical hardboiled PI in the traditional sense.

Poisons Unknown by Frank Kane