Seven the Hard Way

Jack Kovacs, kicked off the police force, becomes a private detective in 1920s Chicago. Seven the Hard Way is a collection of six short stories and one novella tracing Kovacs's life from the Prohibition era to the late 1940s."Hard Winter Night"-Kovacs helps a woman who owes money, money she can't repay, to a mob boss."Good Day for a Massacre"-Caught up in two events of 1929, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre and the stock market crash, Kovacs travels Route 66 to Oklahoma, searching for a runaway wife and a box of ancient coins."Crooked Alley"-A murder in the alley behind Kovacs's office building sends him searching for a book the mob wants to recover and the woman who took it."Kovacs Alone" (novella)-Kovacs revisits old neighborhoods and retraces his life while trying to solve four murders. The only apparent connection to the four murders-Kovacs himself."Aladdin's Castle"-The kidnapping of an executive for a novelties company climaxes in a hunt around an amusement park."Down for the Count"-Trying to help a woman locate a missing boyfriend, Kovacs finds murder in Milwaukee."Ten Cents a Dance"-Nearing retirement, Kovacs finds a corpse in the Chicago stockyards and takes a final shot at romance with a dime-a-dance girl.