There are also several excellent black and white pieces throughout.

So what about the story?

Well, The Strange Women is misleading in at least two ways. There aren't really any strange women in it, to begin with.

Second, it's actually a shortened version of Gault's 1952 novel Don't Cry For Me.

It's good enough that I wouldn't mind reading the original version. It's told from the point of view of a young man who had a brief moment of glory as a football player but is now the black sheep of his well-to-do and respectable family.

Pete doesn't too anything terrible, he just lives behind his means, which are an allowance of a hundred dollars a week from his brother. He's got a steady girlfriend who'd like to get married but Pete hasn't got the money and also seems unsure of the idea.

Flat broke, he goes along with a friend to a mobster's house and wins a bunch of money in a craps game. He gets in a fight with another mobster there and the next day this guy is found dead in Pete's apartment.

So now you've got the mob, the cops and Pete trying to solve this mystery, sometimes in concert and sometimes in conflict.

There are some interesting touches. Pete's next door neighbor is a writer for the pulps and another pulp writer who specializes in westerns shows up later.

James Joyce's Ulysses turns out to be a clue and Pete also tells the reader that he tries to unwind by "get[ting] into Maugham, into Marquand, into Irwin Shaw". Saroyan and Ellery Queen are also mentioned.

It was a good read with some nice period details and slang. The only real complaint is that you're asked to believe that taking a few drags on a joint is going to affect you like a combination of LSD and pneumonia.