Helen
Who was Helen Pilasky? Why did she murder Judge Knowton, and just what was Judge Knowton's connection with Helen Pilasky and with the syndicate? And why did Helen have no past?
Called into the case by a political boss in a desert city that seems suspiciously familiar, Blake Eddyman is told to defend a hopeless case -- a prostitute who murdered the city's leading citizen. He is reasonably bright, and no less honest than the next man, but now he finds himself inextricably caught up in the machine called the syndicate.
Here is an exciting modern mystery that is a little more than a mystery. A study of a strange and beautiful woman -- and a parable of our time as well. San Verdo, the fictional city that E.V. Cunningham creates as the locale of his new story, will be identified as half a dozen places. But it is none of them and it is all of them -- and much of America too. Here is a powerful, moving tale of a desert city dedicated to legal gambling, of a man and woman whose paths cross and tie into a knot that can never be unraveled, of a murder, a court trial, and of the anatomy of a modern American casino.
If you are not yet an E.V. Cunningham fan, Helen will make you one. If you are already a Cunningham fan, you know what to expect. Hard-boiled, tender, fast-paced -- we challenge you to put this book down once you have read the first five pages.
from the dust jacket of the 1966 Doubleday first edition
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