In this gripping classic thriller from the Golden Age of noir, tough-as-nails PI Ben Jardinn investigates the bizarre murder of an orchestra conductor in front of thousands of witnesses at the Hollywood Bowl

From his Hollywood office just steps away from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, hard-drinking private investigator Ben Jardinn keeps his finger firmly on the pulse of Tinseltown. So when an orchestra conductor is shot dead in front of twenty thousand pairs of eyes at the famed Hollywood Bowl, Jardinn is intrigued—especially since two of the prime suspects came to ask for his help before the murder even occurred. However, tracking down the truth won’t be easy since it seems no one’s word can be trusted—not even that of the PI’s closest colleagues. And the trail to a killer and a motive twists into dark and unexpected places where even a tough, streetwise detective may find it difficult to stay alive.

A pioneer of hard-boiled 1930s detective fiction, Raoul Whitfield created some of the genre’s most intriguing stories and characters, many of which were featured in Black Mask, a legendary pulp magazine of the era. A contemporary of Dashiell Hammett—as well as his drinking buddy—Whitfield enjoyed success on par with Hammett’s during his lifetime. But while the works of mystery writers like Hammett and Raymond Chandler have been immortalized in print and on the movie screen, for decades Whitfield’s action-packed tales of betrayal, revenge, greed, and murder were largely ignored—an injustice that is now being rectified to the delight of noir fiction aficionados everywhere.

This ebook includes an introduction by Boris Dralyuk.