If you're Toussaint Moore, a private investigator from New York City, and a Negro, framed in your own city for a white man's murder, you are going to find it tricky sledding in a small Ohio town, close to the Kentucky border. But the small town was where Moore felt he had to be, to try to find proof for the police that he was innocent of the killing. Moore's problems had started in New York, when the publicity woman from a television show called You-Detective! came to ask him to shadow a man. The idea of the show was that the viewers were given information about a wanted man, and the first viewer to find the man and report him to the police won a reward. In short, it was a combination adventure and give-away show. Ed Lacy has written his most unusual story-a very exciting one, and one which handles with exceptional insight a Negro's experiences in a large northern city and a small, bordering-on-the-South town.

Two books in one! Murder in Paradise and The Coin of Adventure ''What is the meaning of 'whore?''' Ruita asked in Tahitian, anger rising in her voice. I didn't hear an answer because just then a hell of a fracas broke out at the poolside. Ruita and Kitty Merry were rolling on the white sand, punching and clawing at each other. The actress' halter was yanked off and Ruita's blouse was ripped to shreds. I ran over and pulled Ruita to her feet, blood on her gorgeous face from a deep scratch. Kitty had a puffed eye and there was blood on her over-red lips as she jumped up - bare breasts moving like two enormous pendulums - screaming words I hadn't heard in years. Much later, long after I had returned to the boat, a Papeete cop arrived looking for my Ruita. She had disappeared. And Kitty Merry had just been found murdered.