This was a really good private eye novel that doesn't have a private eye in it. The hero is Jordan Mace, a lawyer who works for a lawyer named Desmond Cabot.

Their relationship is kind of like Archie Goodwin and Nero Wolfe's, but not nice. Cabot is brilliant but manipulative and greedy and lacking in empathy.

Mace has been twice married and twice divorced, both times to brilliant women whom he loved and who loved him back. But they had rival careers and Cabot's demand that Mace be on call at all hours, every day, didn't leave much room for marriage.

The set-up for this one is that a ravishing movie star, Roxanne Royal, basically Marilyn Monroe, has just escaped a murder attempt. A woman who looks like her, employed as her stand-in and driving her car, has just been killed by a shotgun blast that took off her entire head.

Cabot and Mace let everyone think that Royal is dead while they try to figure out what's going on and protect her from whoever is trying to kill her.

This involves a descent into a totally corrupt California coastal gambling town called Panamo, kind of a discount Personville.

Daniels appears to have been making up the story and the plot as he went along, as each turn in the road just sort of appears as necessary. The only consistent thread is Mace's first-person narration and he's an amusing character, given to witty remarks without overdoing it.

It was fun to read with some deft writing, vivid characters and some moments of sex and violence that were more explicit than usual. If you've read any Mickey Spillane you'll probably guess where it's going to end up.

The first line is "It was a Hollywood super-colossal, technicolor, wide screen, panoramic special of a funeral—for a girl without a head!".

Of course it starts with "Moon River" but the combo of tenor sax, electric guitar, piano, bass and drums does a little something unusual. In the beginning the guitar plays occasional staccato, reverby, percussive notes, sounding more like something from the surf rock world than the jazz world. Eventually the guitarist—I think it's Joe Diorio—gets to cut loose for a solo and it's a great one.

The grooviest tune on the original soundtrack is "Something for Cat", which has always been irresistible for me. On the Harris album it gets a reimagining with a very different feel, extremely syncopated and with a riot of rhythmic attack. It's genius.

Then the short "Sally's Tomato" is a solid piece of West Coast swing/bop that could have been dropped into any episode of Peter Gunn.

The "Mr. Yunioshi" track starts with a stereotypically "Japanese" musical intro that, thankfully, is nowhere near as offensive as the portrayal of the character in the movie but is nonetheless disappointing. With this out of the way, though, the band takes off with a very fast jazz approach and an incredible solo from Harris.

Bluesy and brisk jazz follows for "Big Blow Out", which also features trombone and vibes, and then there's an offkilter rhythmic feel for "Hub Caps and Tail Lights", with the pianist perhaps gesturing toward Monk at times.

The title track, is a bright and cheerful jazz number that swings easily and pleasantly while "Latin Golightly" is just way too short. You want that infectious groove to keep going and going.

Inevitably things will slow down and it happens here with "Holly", a beautiful midtempo piece with brushes on snare and exquisite playing from Harris. Did Paul Desmond ever play this piece? It would be great to hear and of course he adored Audrey Hepburn.

Finally there's the laidback and Latin influenced "Loose Caboose", in which you can hear the Mancini touch quite clearly, even transplanted to this territoru, followed by "The Big Heist", another straight jazz number that reminded me a lot of Mancini's Peter Gunn music.

There are many jazz records based on movie soundtracks, and quite a few specific to Henry Mancini. This is one of the best.