(L.A., Tucson, and McCloud, CA. 1936) A famous novelist, an outlaw who may be the Sundance Kid, and publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst stand between Tom and the truth about the disappearance of his father. Los Angeles Book Festival Best Mystery Award.
During the summer of 1936, destitute farmers from the Dust Bowl swarm into California, and an old friend brings L.A. police detective Tom Hickey a book manuscript, a clue to the mystery of his father Charlie’s long-ago disappearance. Tom chooses to risk losing his job and family to follow the lead, though even his oldest friend and mentor, fellow detective Leo Weiss, passionately opposes Tom’s decision.
In his relentless effort to find out what happened to Charlie, Tom lures the novelist B. Traven to Catalina Island and accuses him of homicide. Traven’s tale is that the Sundance Kid, having escaped from his reputed death in Bolivia, killed Charlie.
Tom crosses the desert to Tucson, pursuing the legendary outlaw. En route, he meets a young Dust Bowl refugee intent on avenging the enslavement of his sister by an L.A. cop on temporary border duty in Yuma. Tom frees the sister, delivers the boy's revenge, and becomes a fugitive, wanted for felony assault by the L.A.P.D., his now former employer.
What he learns in Tucson sends Tom up against newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst. He hopes to enlist Leo before confronting Hearst. But Leo reveals the reason he's tried to keep Tom from investigating: evidence that Tom's father was hardly the gentle fellow his children believed.
For Tom and his sister, both victims of Charlie's wife, their crazy mother, the question is: what now?
Professional Reviews
From Booklist
California, in the mid-1930s. Tom Hickey, an L.A. cop, receives a copy of a manuscript that could clear up the mystery surrounding the disappearance of his father, Charlie, years earlier. But the story in the manuscript, which appears to be autobiographical, is nearly identical to that of The Death Ship, by the mysterious, pseudonymous novelist B. Traven. Could Charlie be the manuscript’s author? Could he still be alive somewhere? And could Traven have appropriated Charlie’s story and passed it off as his novel? Tom vows to track Charlie down, even if it means abandoning his job. The seventh California Century mystery, like the other books in the series, cleverly mixes real and fictional characters and events (along with Traven, newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst makes an appearance, as does the legendary outlaw Sundance Kid, who, it turns out, might not have died in Bolivia after all). Featuring plenty of period atmosphere, some sharply realized characters, and a ripping good mystery, the book should be a hit not just with series fans, but also with anyone who enjoys a mystery that blurs the line between fact and fiction. --David Pitt
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