Terence Faherty, Dance in the Dark

Dance in the Dark

Terence Faherty

Five Star, May 6 2011, $25.95

ISBN: 9781594149573

In 1969, Hollywood Security is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The firm's top operative Scott Elliott is worried about his son Elliot who is missing in action in Vietnam and his wife Ella cracking under the strain of knowing nothing. Their daughter Gabrielle has been a life saver in Elliot's mind as his spouse is falling apart.

Elliot agrees to find the runaway teenage daughter Miranda of a has-been star Forrest Combs. Her trail takes him to the growing XXX hard-core pornography film industry. Producer Ted LeRoy insists he sent her packing as being underage. Meanwhile Elliot is hired to look into drug smuggling by a B filmmaking crew. All roads soon lead to an outdoor rock concert where Elliot is undercover as security.

This exhilarating historical noir uses the Vietnam War's impact on the home front as a back story to a fascinating Hollywood mystery. While his beloved spouse is on the brink of a nervous breakdown and his daughter is mature for her years, Scott works a couple of cases including one that turns into murder. Readers will enjoy following Elliot's escapades (see Kill me Again for a previous Elliot security thriller) as he uses his sleuthing to conceal his fears that the anticipated dreaded call from Fort Ord will either be MIA or deceased.

Harriet Klausner