The Girl with the Frightened Eyes — Lawrence Lariar

The search for a vanished beauty leads a Manhattan sleuth from the dark underbelly of the art world to the bared bellies of Broadway burlesque.
 
Lawrence Lariar was one the most popular cartoonists of the twentieth century. But from the 1940s through the 1960s, he also crafted a line of lean and mean detective and mystery novels under his own name as well as the pseudonyms Michael Stark, Adam Knight, Michael Lawrence, and Marston La France. Lariar now gets his due as a leading artist in hardboiled crime fiction.
 
World War II has ended but Jeff Keye has one more mission: find the beloved sister of a buddy who died in France and break the news personally. An aspiring artist, Paula Smith was, by all accounts, sweet, simple, and warm-hearted. But now she's missing and Jeff needs the help of detective Homer Bull.
 
What Homer has to go on so far are tight-lipped acquaintances, rumors of personal demons, a sequined trail that leads to the Times Square strip circuit, and the brutal, unsolved murder of a playboy art critic. Piece by piece, the real story of Paula's life is starting to come together. And it's not making for a pretty picture.
 
All Homer knows for sure is that Paula is definitely on the run. But is it to save her life or to cover her tracks?
 
The Girl with the Frightened Eyes is the 4th book in the Homer Bull & Hank MacAndrews Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.