Once he was Sierra Lane, hero to countless youngsters in a series of B-movie westerns. Now, after two years in prison, John Ray Horn lives on the margins of post-World War II Los Angeles. His wife has left him, and, blacklisted by the studios, he makes ends meet by collecting debts for his old Indian co-star, Joseph Mad Crow. Then he is shaken out of his cynicism and self-pity: an old friend, Scotty, contacts Horn to tell him about some obscene photos found in his dead father's possession - one, several years old, is of Clea, who was Horn's stepdaughter before his divorce. Within days, Scotty is dead, and Clea has run away. Horn is convinced these developments are linked, and sets off urgently to find Clea. His search takes him from neon-lit ocean-front piers to wooded canyons, from rich homes in the Hollywood Hills to Central Avenue, the Harlem of LA, a street rich in jazz and corruption. The backdrop is Los Angeles in the late 1940s, an adolescent city growing up fast, a city swallowing up its orchards and pastures, a city of equal parts sun and shadow. But will the on-screen tough-guy hero be able to sustain his role off-screen?
Clea's Moon (John Horn)
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'An excellent first novel, with a beguiling central character, that has the reader yearning for more' -- Oscar Tame, 'Books of the Year', in Publishing News
'Excellent, exciting first novel, packed with period detail, written from the heart and suffused with rare feeling' -- Literary Review
'Winner of the Debut Dagger... and it certainly deserves such a distinction...a satisfying read... so well-written and honest in its style of story-telling' -- Tangled Web
'Excellent, exciting first novel, packed with period detail, written from the heart and suffused with rare feeling' -- Literary Review
'Winner of the Debut Dagger... and it certainly deserves such a distinction...a satisfying read... so well-written and honest in its style of story-telling' -- Tangled Web
Book Description
Evocative post-World War II crime novel set in LA, starring ex-movie-star and now debt-collector, John Ray Horn
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The street smelled of dust and regret. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The street smelled of dust and regret. Read the first page
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
Very enjoyable, well-researched thriller set in the underbelly of 1940s boom-town Los Angeles. The story's other great asset is its interesting protagonist, a one-time entertainer who has fallen on hard times, and who carries the story with style. An excellent crime debut.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By George Rodger
VINE™ VOICE
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A great crime novel with a well-evoked setting - LA in the late 40s - and an appealing protagonist : ex B-movie western star John Ray Horn, or 'Sierra Lane' as was, now reduced to collecting debts for his casino-owning former movie sidekick Joseph Mad Crow, after a spell in prison made Horn unemplyable in Hollywood.
The sense of period and place is superbly done, capturing the sprawling expansion of LA after the war, as concrete and tarmac cover what used to be orange groves and canyons where coyotes roamed. Horn is suitably down-at-heel, but possesses the steely and understated stoicism of the best Chandler-esque heroes of 40s fiction and film, like a Bogart character taken out of a film noir and put on the page.
There's even a pleasing nod to 'The Big Sleep', as Horn goes to 'Geiger's bookstore' on the trail of the men who took some obscene photos - including one of Clea, Horns' stepdaughter - after Horn's friend Scotty finds the photos in his dead father's safe. Soon after, Scotty is discovered dead in an apparent suicide, and Clea goes missing...
The writing is confident and assured, and all the more impressive for being a debut novel, and I've already ordered the author's next two.
The sense of period and place is superbly done, capturing the sprawling expansion of LA after the war, as concrete and tarmac cover what used to be orange groves and canyons where coyotes roamed. Horn is suitably down-at-heel, but possesses the steely and understated stoicism of the best Chandler-esque heroes of 40s fiction and film, like a Bogart character taken out of a film noir and put on the page.
There's even a pleasing nod to 'The Big Sleep', as Horn goes to 'Geiger's bookstore' on the trail of the men who took some obscene photos - including one of Clea, Horns' stepdaughter - after Horn's friend Scotty finds the photos in his dead father's safe. Soon after, Scotty is discovered dead in an apparent suicide, and Clea goes missing...
The writing is confident and assured, and all the more impressive for being a debut novel, and I've already ordered the author's next two.
Format:Paperback
This is an excellent read. Edward Wright nicely conjures up a changing LA in the late 1940s (comparable to the way George Pelecanos evokes 1940s Washington in 'The Big Blowdown'). His two central characters - John Ray Horn and Mad Crow, former B-movie actors - are well drawn and believable. The next two books in the series - 'The Silver Face' and 'Red Sky Lament' - are just as good.
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