Solid classic crime story, the model for the film noir genre with Humphrey Bogart.
Pearls are a nuisance, is brilliant. The characterisation was just so sweet and wonderful, not something one usually expects from hard boiled pulp detective stories. But the main character, a large guy with a drinking problem who was sweet and soft, rather than tough and hard, was lovely. Everyone teased him for talking like Jane Austen rather than a detective. He acquired a side-kick, who his girlfriend had accused of taking the pearls, because he was also big and had a fondness for Whiskey and the two were fantastic together.
In "Pearls Are A Nuisance" a society gentlemen is asked by his fiancee to investigate some stolen pearls. He gets mixed up with the suspect and amidst a lot of drinking they try to solve the case together.