An ex-colleague of private detective Hal Lipset provides a detailed account of Lipset's career, disclosing the strategies he pioneered and describing the crimes he attempted to solve Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, Lew Archer, Travis McGee. The names of these fictional private detectives conjure up images of tough guys, single-handedly solving crimes and being the only "white knight" in a field of bad guys. In reality, private detectives lead fairly normal lives, have families, avoid violence, and work with teams of investigators. Lipset is such a detective. Starting his career after World War II, Lipset was a pioneer in the surveillance field. Establishing a team of able investigators, he used a mix of old and new techniques: long, arduous days of watching, developing, and verifying detailed background checks, and also devising and using new electronic surveillance devices. In this enjoyable book, Holt, a former investigator for Lipset and now book editor for the San Francisco Chronicle , has captured the dichotomy of Lipset's life--the excitement and the humdrum. Recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/91. - Sandra K. Lindheimer, Middlesex Law Lib., Cambridge, Mass. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. Engrossing story of a modern detective, the private eye considered best in the business by his peers. Hal Lipset, who opened his office shortly after WW II, is not only an investigator, but an an eavesdropper nonpareil: The bug in the martini olive was a tiny wireless transmitter (with a toothpick as its antenna) that Lipset displayed before a 1965 Senate subcommittee on eavesdropping. Holt (book editor of the San Francisco Chronicle) is uniquely qualified to tell Lipset's story: In the mid-70's, she worked as an investigator for Lipset, and so he now has opened his case files, meticulously kept for 30 years, to her. Lipset, she tells us, has worked as an investigator for Angela Davis, Huey Newton, the San Quentin Six, and the Soledad Brothers, and was security advisor to the Black Panthers, the United Farm Workers, and the American Indian Movement. Lest he be accused of idealism, other clients included Jim Jones of the People's Temple, Chuck Dederich of Synanon, Werner Erhard of est, the Hare Krishna Society, and the Reverend Moon's Unification Church. Unlike many fictional detectives, Lipset does not care whether the people hiring him are right or wrong, guilty or innocent. ``Judgments belong in a court of law,'' he says. ``Our job is to earn the fee.'' Holt's adroitly written narrative follows a number of cases in detail, and she gives Lipset center stage to explain his private systems for putting together pieces of the lying client jigsaw puzzle, and to detail chases of jewel thieves across Europe, murder investigations, and an expert analysis of the Nixon-altered Watergate tapes. The real deal on private detectives, expertly told. A must- have for true crime fans and other students of human nature. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.