Word: blye
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...Utica Avenue in Brooklyn, Ernie Blye, a black man, stayed at his tailor shop all night long, grasping a gun, his German shepherd at his heels. A gang of men began to menace him. He cried out: "If you shoot me, my dog will get you!" They closed in relentlessly. Blye shouted again: "I got ten cans of potash upstairs! I'm goin' upstairs now! I blind you, you come up the stairs after me! I blind you!" The crowd left him alone...
...Irwin Blye will never be mistaken for Philip Marlowe: he is handmaiden to the nation's lawyers, a shrewd middleman in America's judicial process. His assignments, almost always from attorneys, involve collecting evidence that is presentable and persuasive in court. The highest praise for the shamus comes from a lawyer feared in settlement circles as a "matrimonial bomber": "Irwin Blye puts things together. He knows the law." He also knows civil liberties and how to abuse them. To him information is power. His weapons are things like UCC-11 forms (for $3 you get everything on anyone...
...Blye himself is something of a chameleon. He is 42, with a pleasant, forgettable face. It is in some of his convictions about how to do the job that fact and fiction touch. His wardrobe includes "an FBI outfit" - blue suit, white shirt and red tie ("It makes people want to stand up and salute"). His car is filled with hats of all styles - deeply valued props. Another prop consists of a wife and two children. The Blye family drives up to a house and, as the detective notes, "even subpoena-shy people are usually helpful to a man with...
...Blye also shares the conviction with his thriller counterparts that he is a shrewd listener and talker. With poor people, a strong stomach counts. Says he: "I've had to drink coffee out of cracked cups with roach wings floating around inside." But if Blye sits at their tables, they shed their mistrust. With the more affluent, a smooth line of backchat comes in handy...
...much of the book. Pileggi is content to let the subject describe these activities. Since he grew up behind the family shirt shop right across from the old Lindy's on Broadway, the surprisingly likable Blye is full of pungent city speech. Though he works fifteen hours a day for his $50,000 income, he loves his work as few men do. Consequently, Blye, Private Eye is that most mesmerizing of pastimes: inspired shoptalk...