The
Ice Cream Blonde
A
Neil Brand Thriller Volume 1
by
Ray Dyson
Genre:
Thriller, Mystery, Suspense, Crime
Neil
Brand is a former World War I soldier and disgraced ex-cop, now
running security for Harry York at York Brothers Studio in 1931
Hollywood. York has a problem with bad boy actor Johnny Cutter, who
failed to show up on the set to finish his latest picture, and Brand
is sent to find the star. In doing so, Brand uncovers a trail of
white slavery, drugs, and murder, involving famous actors and wealthy
businessmen—and a dirty cop who was once Brand’s partner on the
force. As the body count mounts, Brand tries desperately to discover
the truth—before he becomes one of the victims.
The
Naked Nymph in the Dark Flickers
A
Neil Brand Thriller Volume 2
Rachel
Ann Maddon is about to become America’s next great movie star.
Adored by the camera, loved by her public, beautiful Rachel Ann has
it all, including a dark secret from her past that threatens to blow
up her promising future when her mentor and lover—a man old enough
to be her father—turns up dead. Did he fall or was he pushed? Or
did the bullet in him do the job? Either way, a homicide
investigation will be deadly publicity for Rachel Ann and her family.
Rachel Ann’s movie studio switches into high gear to protect her
teetering career, but then Neil Brand, the studio’s security chief,
uncovers a blackmail scheme over illicit sex films that threatens
other major motion picture stars. As the heat builds, the rich and
powerful scramble to get out from under. That’s when the bodies
begin to pile up.
Excerpt from The Naked Nymph:
Harless saw me and
stepped to the doorway. He pointed at the black sheet. “I think that’s somebody
you know. David Lemmert.”
“VanderSaant’s kid?”
“The same. I believe
you’ve met.”
I shrugged.
“Briefly.”
“Keep your hands in
your pockets and come on in.”
Another figure
wrapped in a black sheet slumped on the bed, head over the edge, arm dangling.
It was a woman’s arm.
“Charlotte Lemmert?”
Harless nodded. “No
gunshot wounds on either body. No marks of any sort that indicate something of
a violent nature. Cabin undisturbed.”
“No one to hear. No
one to see.”
“That’s right,” he
said. “Looks like David Lemmert managed to get the cabin door open before he
dropped dead. We found a snub-nosed Smith and Wesson .38 Special with a full
chamber on the floor beside him.”
I frowned. “One
cabin?”
“Adjoining cabins.
Figures out to around two grand for the trip.”
“That’s a lot of kale. I
had the hunch these two were on their uppers.”
“Any idea how they
bought it?”
“We’ll know more when the
coroner gets them.”
“Hunch?”
“Same one you got. It
ain’t hard to figure.” He eyed me stonily, went on. “What we don’t have are any
witnesses. We can pin it down pretty solid. Looks like they bought it late last
night. Ship was to sail this morning and it was a pretty busy place last night.
You could probably have slipped a marimba band on board without it being seen.”
“You’ve got people to
see, Frank. Why bring me down here?”
“Might be the people we
want to see belong to your pal Harry York in one way or another. Thought I’d
give you a heads up.”
“I’ll tell you this,
Frank. Harry no longer cares about any of them. There’ll be no interference. No
stall. No more payoffs.”
He nodded. “I figured
that since we got access to Metcalf and to the Maddon doll without strings it
was shaking out that way.”
“I figure I’ll be
seeing some of those people in the course of business.”
“Go ahead, Neil. At
least one of them already knows we’re on our way.”
Ray
Dyson first took up writing in Evansville, Indiana, far enough back
that not only is the house he was born in no longer there, neither is
the street. He had a short career as a baseball player, but a long
career as a newspaperman whose gigs included crime reporter, sports
reporter and sports editor. He is also a noted Western historian. He
is the author of the baseball book, Smokey Joe: A Baseball Fable, a
tale of legendary pitcher Smokey Joe Hood. That book, and Bannon: The
Scavenger Breed, involve members of the Bannon family: Joel Patrick
the main character in Bannon, and his grandson, Henry Louis Bannon,
an outfielder in Smokey Joe. His mystery novel, The Ice Cream Blonde,
set in the Hollywood of the early 1930s, follows York Studios
security chief Neil Brand as he solves the murder of a famous movie
star mixed up in blackmail and white slavery. His latest Neil Brand
tale, The Naked Nymph in the Dark Flickers, about a rising movie star
caught up in a treacherous blackmail scheme that turns to murder, is
now available. He lives in Mansfield, Ohio, with his family. In
retirement, he works even harder on his golf game, but with less
success.
1 comments:
I think these books sound like fascinating reads! Yes, I love crime thrillers!
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