Mike Hammer

This is some household. The kid is a genius, the father a scientist of international repute. Money is a problem. Not a shortage of money, but the opposite: too much. The sort of money that brings the envious and the scheming clustering like flies around offal: nieces, nephews, cousins ... a family of mean minds and gross appetites.

The staff has its peculiarities, too: the chauffeur is an ex-con; the governess formerly a featured act in strip clubs from New York to Miami; and the secretary has a well-developed taste in other women.

Yes, it''s some household - and not all that welcoming of PI Mike Hammer, not when the kid has been kidnapped and everyone''s a suspect.