Mystery of The Matinee Murders

Mystery of the Matinee Murders is now available at Amazon.com in Kindle format.

In Matinee Murders, Republic Studio flack Curly Woods embarks on a public relations road trip that travels the length of California with western film heroes Hoot Gibson and Crash Corrigan, Radio drama thespians Orson Welles and Ray Collins, two lovely radio actresses, a voice impersonator, an announcer and a mute sound-effects specialist. The goal is to entertain at theater Saturday matinees and children’s hospital wards while promoting Republic’s latest serial, The Painted Stallion, and a potential radio mystery presentation, The Man of the Mist. Along the way, they encounter an unknown assassin who leaves a trail of victims killed by cobra venom, a doomed psychic medium who warns of death, and an underground base camp of Nazis who are attempting to build an army of the dead. Western film star Ken Maynard joins the entertainers in an attempt to save a theater full of young fans of the Three Mesquiteers from a fate worse than death. The Hollywood Cowboy Detectives know they must use all of their western skills to defeat an enemy so evil that the future of the life on Earth hangs in the balance - all the while, the unique entertainers must do everything possible to avoid their impulses to strangle each other.

Mystery of the Matinee Murders will soon be the third paperback in the series as (Vol. 1) Mystery at Movie Ranch and (Vol. 2) Mystery of the Arizona Dragon are currently available. Vol. 1 includes the short story Mystery of the Murdered Badman and Vol. 2 includes Mystery of the Stuntman’s Ghost.

The Hollywood Cowboy Detectives series honors the great western and adventure serial stars of silent and talking motion pictures. These stories are written and illustrated in the style of the classic pulps of the 1930s.