LAPD Los Angeles 744: The Blue Hotel Case

Los Angeles Metro - "A tawdry cauldron of political corruption, graft and fornication set in early 1960's Los Angeles - what's not to like?"

Like in the line of the Chris Isaak song, "Blue Hotel, where every room is lonely..."

May 1963.... Los Angeles Private Investigator Ken Trumbell reports in a body he has apparently found by the side of the road, north of the city.

It is the start of a long road that wends it way through a neighbourhood of graft, corruption and casual sex towards a climax that rips the carpet up.

A story thatcan trace its roots all the way back to the 1949 Vice Scandal which exposed corrupt Police, Mobsters and the seedy world of corruption, prostitution and extortion.

A young LAPD Officer 744 Jim Kendal, working with veteran Homicide Dectective 1009 Frank Baumer, takes on a something or nothing missing person report, concerning Gaynor Holland a sometime air hostess.

A throwaway newspaper clip of a Coroner's Court report tucked away near the sport pages of the leading Los Angeles newspaper suddenly makes for interesting reading.

Jim Kendal teams up with the legendary young Will White, Detective 121 from the Olivia Page case of 1962. Together, the two LAPD men start out on a trail, leading to the exclusive Etoile Hotel, a place where they invite you to stay, the sort of place that you need a Dunn and Bradstreet report before they'll even consider you as a guest.

Suddenly, their investigation starts to turn up some very deep questions, about some people who have come to their interest.

Then there the Japanese Defence attache Hirodo Tanaka (a Bukake fanatic who likes to dispense his own brand of Mikki Moto Pearl necklaces), who becomes a situation that if it comes out in the open, could dangerously sour U.S. - Japanese relations. Especially at a time when the influence of Communism is knocking loudly at the door of Asia and the U.S. needs all the friends it can have in that region of the world on its side.

Then there is the mysterious man who identifies himself only as 'Mr. Washington,' is he 'the Voice' that gives Trumbell assignments over the phone and in covert drops, for large cash rewards? How much does he know and how far does his influence reach? Whose side is he actually on?

Maybe Gordon Stanwell formerly of Lakeview Air has something to hide? With the smell of smoke from the recently burned down Lakeview Air business fresh in his nostrils, he now fronts Tomahawk Air, a company very keen to do business, but there are memories of WW2 which sours some of his dealings with Tanaka and his government.

You haven't even read the start of it, if you factor in an ambitious Senator who can't keep his pants on and an abortion racket run by a struck of Doctor, then you're in for a hardcore noir ride through the overtly respectable face of early 1960's Los Angeles scene. Where things can rarely be taken at face value.

Also published as 'Gangster Hotel'

The author spent a number of years in the law enforcement and investigation fields of work and often draws on his own experience of those situations for his writing.

This book was written by a man wore a badge, a man who was not afraid to confront corruption and a man who was not afraid to confront the corrupt.