Recommended reading - The Ferguson Affair, by Ross Macdonald (1960):

The Ferguson Affair

By Ross Macdonald.

Published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.

First published 1960.

ISBN-10:030774079X

ISBN-13: 9780307740793

Description:

It was a long way from the million-dollar Foothill Club to Pelly Street, where grudges were settled in blood and Spanish and a stolen diamond ring landed a girl in jail.  Defense lawyer Bill Gunnarson was making the trip – fast.  He already knew a kidnapping at the club was tied to the girl's hot rock, and he suspected that a missing Hollywood starlet was the key to a busy crime ring.  But while Gunnarson made his way through a storm of deception, money, drugs, and passions, he couldn't guess how some big shots and small-timers would all end up with murder in common...