When Ben Kavanaugh is robbed and murdered, it seems that Private Eye Cliff Dexter, hired by Kavanaugh to trace Laura Gordon, must mark the file case closed. But Dexter's investigations have already carried him to a psychological point of no return. Piece by piece he builds up a fascinating picture of Laura, no looker, but seductive to a wide variety of men, all of whom she dupes and betrays in her hunger for the good life and a stage for her own rare talents... THE BIG LOSER by Elliot Kennedy (a pseudonym of the bestselling British author Lionel Robert Holcombe Godfrey; _ 01. January 1932; 01. January 1980) was first published in 1972; Apex is publishing a new edition of this classic of crime literature in its ENGLISH CRIME NOVELS series.