The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles



Go to Catalog
Title: The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Imprint: Poisoned Pen Press
Pub Date: 05/01/2010
ISBN: 9781590586976
Author: Ken Kuhlken
URLs:
 
Category:
FICTION - ADULT: Mystery, Detective, Suspense & Thrillers: Mystery & Detective
 

Edition Information
Print Editions:
Format: Hardcover
Publication Date: 05/01/2010
Pages: 250
Trim Size: 5.5in x 8.5in
ISBN: 9781590586976
List Price: $24.95
Format: Large Print
Publication Date: 05/01/2010
Pages: 408
Trim Size: 5.5in x 8.5in
ISBN: 9781590586983
List Price: $22.95
Format: Paperback
Publication Date: 05/01/2010
Pages: 250
Trim Size: 5.5in x 8.5in
ISBN: 9781590587362
List Price: $14.95



Marketing Copy

In 1926, when musician Tom Hickey reads in a broadside about a lynching the Los Angeles newspapers failed to report, and discovers  the Negro victim was an old friend, he goes to his neighbor Leo Weiss, an LAPD detective. Leo confirms that, officially, the lynching didn’t occur.

Tom has a dance orchestra to lead and a wild younger sister to raise. Yet he decides to investigate the murder. Since the lynching occurred in Echo Park, across the street from evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson’s Angelus Temple, he goes there looking for clues and is greeted and watched by an usher who follows him after the service and continues to shadow him daily.

The investigation earns Tom beatings, gunfire meant to dissuade him, and warnings from Leo, a speakeasy owner, and a Klansman, that he’s made formidable enemies. Among them may be infamous Police Chief Two Gun Davis, Examiner publisher and political heavyweight William Randolph Hearst, and Harry Chandler, owner of the Times, who owns more land than any man in the world.

After Sister Aimee announces that on November 2, election day, she will preach a sermon entitled “The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles,”   Tom deduces that the cover up may involve local politics, perhaps a ballot referendum that will decide who the city’s future belongs to:  the railroads, whose plans include subways and elevated trains; or the oil, automobile, and suburban development interests, devoted to building highways.

Meanwhile, Tom also discovers that the key to the murder, as is too often the case, lies close to home.

Reviews