The Flower-Covered Corpse — Michael Avallone

“When a man is marked for the bullet that will kill him, it doesn't seem to matter when it was that you saw him last." Ed Noon, Private Eye

The first bad vibration came when a famous Guru was found swinging on a Greenwhich Village meat hook. The next arrived when someone used a bomb to blow more than hippies minds. The summer of love was over, and the only trace of flower power was the scent of poppies. The only way Ed Noon could turn off a turned-on killer was to take the ultimate trip to the depths of the Underground, where speed, sex and Satanism ruled supreme, and everyone was cool. Especially the corpses.

The Adventures of Ed Noon, Private Eye, spanning over 30 novels written between 1953 and 1990. Noon starts out dirt poor with a tiny office in Midtown Manhattan (his “Mouse Auditorium”) but success moves him to better digs, a lovely secretary (Melissa Mercer) and, eventually, the most important client of all: the President of the United States. The series concludes with a daring turn towards science fiction in the last two novels. Through it all, the wisecracking Noon is consistent: a movie and baseball-obsessed romantic who always fights the good fight. And, more often than not, wins.