These days, Tim Hallinan is well known for two different crime fiction series, one featuring career burglar Junior Bender and another featuring American ex-pat travel writer Poke Rafferty. But before Junior and Poke came along, there was Simeon Grist, a young private detective whose story Hallinan began to tell in 1990. The Simeon Grist novels (there are six of them) are perhaps not as easy to find (other than in e-book format), as the Bender and Rafferty ones, but Tim Hallinan fans that make the effort to get their hands on them in one form or another are going to be happy that they did.

Skin Deep was the third Simeon Grist novel published, but because it was actually the first one written, I chose to make it my introduction to the series. Series purists may prefer reading The Four Last Things and Everything but the Squeal first. I suspect that either way will be equally effective as a way to get to know and enjoy the Simeon Grist character.

Simeon Grist does not hesitate for a second when the handsome guy down the bar punches his girlfriend in the face, knocking her to the floor. Simeon is up and at the guy immediately – and just a few well-aimed punches later the jerk joins his girlfriend on the barroom floor. It is only when the man offers Simeon a handful of hundred dollar bills to get him out of the bar before the cops show up that Simeon begins to realize just how unusual a man Toby Vane really is.

Toby Vane, unbeknownst to Simeon, is a television star with one of those “boy next door” grins and images, and right now he stars in one of the most popular series in all of television. But Toby Vane is actually nothing at all like a boy anyone would want living in their neighborhood, much less next door to them. And his studio is willing to pay Simeon a whole lot of money to keep Toby’s secret – that he can’t resist beating and sexually humiliating women – from the public.

Simeon is not especially proud of himself for working for the likes of a Toby Vane but tells himself that at least he’s making sure that Toby won’t be beating up any more women for a while. But even that is a lot easier said than done, and when some of the women hanging around Toby start turning up beaten to death, Simeon begins to wonder if he’s working for a coldblooded killer, a sexual pervert, or some combination of both.

Skin Deep is an exciting introduction to the Simeon Grist series that has me looking forward to what will be for me the next book in the series, The Four Last Things, and wondering if a Simeon Grist revival might be in the cards someday. Don’t let this series slip by you. ( )

When you love two series that an author has written and you discover that he's written a third, you're going to go out of your way to find the books in that unsampled series. That's what I did when I found out that favorite author Timothy Hallinan had written the Simeon Grist series well before I fell in love with his others featuring Poke Rafferty and Junior Bender.

What I found in Skin Deep was a beginning effort by someone who was trying to make his writing fit into the standard P.I. format. Skin Deep has its problems, but it shows a lot of promise and hints of Hallinan's later heroes, Poke and Junior.

The pacing of the book was slow at times and could've been tightened up, and although I liked Simeon, there wasn't enough background on him. (Probably rule #1 in the P.I. author's handbook: Never give too much away about your hero.) I have to be honest here and say that what I disliked most about the book are things that I usually don't like about P.I. novels-- everyone seems to be a sleezeball, the violence, and that arch tone that makes me grind my teeth. So if you love the standard private eye novel, chances are you're going to enjoy this one a lot more than I did.

What I did enjoy was catching so many glimpses of the writer Hallinan was soon to become. He is a writer who doesn't really fit within the confines of any one standard genre, and it took him a little time to figure out how to turn things to his (and our) advantage. The unconventional-- yet very satisfying-- solution reminded me of things Poke Rafferty and Junior Bender would do in future books. And-- like Junior Bender-- Simeon Grist knows Hollywood gossip, legends and history. On the surface, Simeon Grist looks and maybe even sounds like one of those 1930s tough guy gumshoes, but down deep he has the soft heart and smarts of those two Hallinan characters I've already mentioned.

Skin Deep may not have been a completely satisfying read for me, but I did enjoy going back to see one of my favorite writer's "origins." ( )