Last Gamble: Al Travers Mystery

By Linda Maye Adams

An actress...frightened, desperate. Her producer husband missing.

 

Private Investigate Al Travers searches for the truth. But in Hollywood, truth and lies mix.

 

He must decipher the cryptic clues. But he fears he may be too late to save the husband.

 

A page-turning historical mystery story of 1904s Hollywood!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Turquoise Sunset Publishing
• Release date: Feb 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781393787105

Linda Maye Adams

Linda Maye Adams is published in Kevin J. Anderson’s anthology Monsters, Movies, & Mayhem.  She is the author of the military-based GALCOM Universe series, including the novel Crying Planet, featured in the 2018 Military Science Fiction StoryBundle, and is working on a superhero novel. 

Book preview

Hollywood, 1948

Even my typewriter ribbon thought I should be done for the night.  I glared at the faded letters marching across the page of my report.

Maybe it was right.

The wooden chair creaked as I leaned back to gaze out the window of my second-floor office.  From the ache in my shoulders, I’d been typing longer than I thought. My desk light cast a sickly yellow pool across the battered wooden desk.  Shadows crept stealthily behind me.

Hungry for me to sleep.

Rubbing my gritty eyes, I stood.  I’d told myself the lie that I wanted to wait for the rain to stop.  It hadn’t, and I knew it wouldn’t.  Didn’t rain all that much in Los Angeles, but when it did, I always thought Mother Nature wanted to wash Hollywood down the sewer.

The faint clink of bottles drifted from the floor, then a voice, too loud.  Couldn’t make out the words.  My office sat right over a liquor store, rented from the owner.  My fingers itched.  He’d have cigarettes.  One might make the nightmares go away.

The thought of the match flaring in darkness triggered the memory of the single gunshot.  Then the flame going out.

It happened three years