Stanley Ellin deserves to be considered as a master crime novelist---right up there with John D MacDonald and Ross Macdonald--he is that good. Everything he has written from short stories to thrillers and detective novels is head and shoulders above the rest and that goes for The Bind. Discover Ellin.

I enjoyed reading this book and rate it 3.5 stars. Jake Dekker and his lovely assistant move into a rented house for a month in a wealthy part of Miami Beach in 1968. Jake is a free lance insurance investigator who only gets paid if he saves the insurance company from paying out on a fraudulent claim--in this case $200,000. The policy was for $100,00 with a double indemnity clause in case of an accident. But the insurance company smells a rat and puts Jake on the case. Jake's assistant, Elinor, is a part time actress, who has been hired to play Jake's wife.
There are a lot of different elements in this plot--a fraudulent insurance claim, false identities, blackmail, a bit of romance and organized crime figures. About halfway through the blackmail becomes less believable. I can't explain why without going into spoiler territory.
Some less palatable parts-- blatant prejudice by some characters towards black and Jewish people.
The author bio states that Stanley Ellin lived from 1916-1986 and won several awards.
Some quotes:
Prejudice--"The complication is that his father's been family doctor for the Thorens and us and lot of others around here for years. Fine doctor, nice, level headed guy who knows his place, enjoys a good Yid joke as much as anybody else--now how do you tell a man like that that his son just isn't wanted around here? Certainly not to be a papa to your grandchildren."
Souvenir hunter--"If that body turns up in the bay, do you think they'll let me have any buckshot they dig out of it as kind of a souvenir?"
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me this book.

The Bind was a very intricately woven story, no doubt. Too many situations, however, had to fall in place throughout the book in order to make it work. There were way too many occasions where Jake needed something done, and, unrealistically, Magnes would fix him up at the drop of a hat with someone to either find out information, send in another guy, or make a boat show up, all with pinpoint timing. Not believable.

Not believable either was the premise that this whole story was built on whether insurance money was or wasn’t due Mrs. Thoren. Thousands of dollars of Jake’s fee were spent along the way for Elinor’s and Magnes’s services, so much so that there would have been very little left.

The love story was lame at best. It’s very one-sided with needy Elinor hanging on Jake – yup, a real eye-roller – and he’s continually brushing her off. He treats her like crap, yet she hangs on, claiming to love him. If Mr. Ellin is trying to give the impression that she’s a ditzy, dumb blond, he is very successful.

The ending seemed very hastily thrown together. I, the reader, am supposed to believe this convoluted and complex story that took 97% of the book and then believe that the ending could be pulled together in a few pages. It didn’t work for me.