Deadly Secrets by Robert Boris Riskin

Jake Wanderman is not your average retired teacher and Shakespeare maven. He has tangled with the Russian Mafia in Moscow and assassins in Jerusalem and always come out on top. Now his childhood friend’s long-lost daughter is a suspect in a murder investigation and Jake’s help is needed. The daughter flees to London and he follows, searching for clues. Instead, he uncovers rape, suicide, and secret identities. And falling in love with the female detective on the case only complicates the issue.

Like Sam Spade phoning in his reports to Effie, Jake Wanderman talks us through this corkscrew case in his own inimitable, Brooklyn-wise-guy style while quoting Shakespeare at every opportunity.