Skin Deep (Simeon Grist) by Timothy Hallinan

This was the first Timothy Hallinan novel I read and boy, did I like it. Simeon Grist is a nineties version of Philip Marlowe. I loved his wry, sarcastic voice!
Hired by the men behind actor Toby Vane to keep him out of trouble he ends up in bed with a stripper. Not bad! Toby Vane likes beating up women and a stripper gets murdered. Very bad!
Hallinan paints a great picture of the dark side of Hollywood with exciting, but 'real' characters. The ending is just fantastic! The way Grist deals with the villain in the end seems like something Noah Milano might even shy away from. Inventive and brutal.
This is only one of four reissued Grist novels and I will be sure to read them all.