Dancing in the Dark

The Japanese are bombing Guadalcanal. General Montgomery faces a desperate Rommel in Tunisia. FDR proposes a cradle-to-grave Social Security plan. The war's getting long and L.A.'s sleuth to the stars Toby Peters is getting twenty-five dollars a day plus expenses. His job: convince a vainglorious gun moll and a semiretired gangster to leave Fred Astaire alone.

The woman is Luna Martin, a blond beauty with feet of solid lead and the grace of an armadillo. The ex-mobster is Arthur Forbes, a.k.a. Fingers Intaglia, who's swapped his onetime prominence in Detroit's Purple Gang for Los Angeles real estate and respectability. It seems Luna wants to dance, and Forbes wants the most famous feet in America to teach her. Fred Astaire wants Toby to get Forbes and the rather loose Luna off his back...and every other part of his anatomy.