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Overview
America's premier mystery writers -- Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner -- make a stunning comeback in the pages of this latest Black Mask suspense novel from William F. Nolan. In another vivid re-creation of Hollywood's Golden Age, Nolan delivers a narrative that propels the reader into the heart of a case in which Erle Stanley Gardner is accused of murder and becomes a hunted fugitive, staying just one step ahead of the law in a desperate attempt to find the real killer. The action sweeps from an M-G-M movie set in Culver City to a glamorous health spa in Carmel on the Pacific coast, from an obscure fishing village on the Gulf of California to the plush estates of Montecito near Santa Barbara - and climaxes in a tense, and ultimately explosive, Beverly Hills murder trial in which Gardner, in true Perry Mason style, chooses to defend himself against a threatened death sentence. During the colorful course of events, readers are treated to a drunken John Barrymore emoting Shakespeare in Palm Springs, a wildly bawdy encounter with Mae West in a steam bath, a full-throttle car chase with racing legend Barney Oldfield, and a shocking phone call from America's foremost gossipmonger, Walter Winchell.Editorials
Kirkus Reviews
Though he's been estranged from his wife Natalie for years, Erle Stanley Gardner thinks he's about to be restored to the love of his life: Amy Latimer Thompson, whom he pushed into marriage with Hollywood star Tink Thompson because a lawyer-turned-pulp-writer couldn't offer her anything like Tink's money or status. Now Amy, shocked by the way unloving Tink's hounded their little boy to a fatal accident, has turned up on Gardner's door with every indication that she's ready to turn down his sheets tonight and every night. But the bright promise is only a teaser, as Gardner finds out when Amy is murdered and her last-minute will leaving everything to her old flame brings the LAPD down on Gardner's neck. How can he prove his innocence? By using his connections with fellow Black Mask alumni Dashiell Hammett (who offers to hide him from the cops) and Raymond Chandler (who talks a judge into setting a bail low enough for Hammett, flush with MGM cash, to pay). The ensuing investigations into Tink's amours (betrayals, secret marriages, love children) don't bear any closer scrutiny than the climactic scene that brings Perry Mason's creator into the courtroom as his own free-wheeling counsel, but they do give the Black Mask boys an excuse for doing some more high-spirited roughhousing and running into historical figures from Gloria Swanson to Barney Oldfield.Book Details
Published
November 1, 1998
Publisher
Thomas Dunne Books
Pages
272
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780312193317