James Murray is a young man with a dream -- he wants to be a writer
just like his idol, Dashiell Hammett -- but there's a Depression
on, and he's the only one in his family with a job. Even though
it's a good job -- clerking in the Junior Boy's department at the
swankest new department store in downtown Los Angeles: Eastern
Columbia, Broadway at Ninth -- it's not writing. At the end of one
typical day at work, there's a scream. James rushes toward the
sound and finds his best friend -- co-worker Elizabeth "Bess"
Flowers -- apparently shot and lying dead in the Better Furniture
department. He finds a note in her purse telling her to be in front
of the Orpheum Theater at 5:30 "or else." He looks at his watch:
it's nearly that time now. Was she shot by a person she refused to
meet? Or by someone who wanted to make sure she didn't make the
meeting? James decides to keep the date in front of the theater
where, with the help of his good friend, screen-star Charles
"Buddy" Rogers, he begins a whirlwind ride through the crepuscular
depths of downtown Los Angeles, trying to solve Elizabeth's murder.
"Murder at Eastern Columbia" is not like any book you've ever read:
Not a single novel, it's two parallel novels, featuring two heroes,
working two murders in two different versions of 1930s Los Angeles.
Join James and his alter ego as they each try to solve the murder
of the girl with sorrel-colored hair. His hard-boiled alter ego --
neither a private detective nor a police officer: just someone "who
wants to help" -- needs to find out who's trying to pin the murder
on him, but finds himself in a jam: "Yeh. Strawberry preserves. All
the way up to my neck." Two men in two stories work their way
through downtown Los Angeles following clews, interviewing people
who might know something, going from location to location, with one
goal in mind: find out who might have wanted the girl dead. Along
the way they meet a rich cast of characters including the notorious
gangster, a gorgeous raven-haired dame, the beautiful young boy
whose love is his undoing, a young doctor whose specialty is cancer
research, the cleaning lady with a secret addiction, the struggling
piano player who just wants to keep his nose clean, the gum-popping
pawn-shop clerk and the sultry Chinese apartment manager who tries
to hide behind the mysteries of the Orient. "Murder at Eastern
Columbia" is filled with twists, turns and a climactic scene along
the dizzying heights of the observation deck atop the brand new Los
Angeles City Hall. Come along for the ride in this James Murray
mystery: the story of a young guy, a kid really, who dreams of
something better.
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