Mrs. Gladys Jellicoe has a serious problem and needs the help of private detective Shell Scott. He has come to her home in the Hollywood Hills from his office in the Hamilton Building on Broadway in downtown Los Angeles this warm September morning in response to her phone call. While she may have called him because she appears to be extremely well preserved— much like a mummy– apparently the real reason she called is the fact that her ex-husband is missing.

She believes him to be dead. Wilfred Jefferson Jellicoe is supposed to send her a monthly alimony check of three thousand dollars on or before the first of the month. “Jelly” as she calls him has now missed two payments. She has done some checking around of her own and has determined that he has not been seen at the Cavendish House in Hollywood for several days now. That is where he has been staying recently and he has not checked out. She has no idea where her ex-husband, at one time the assistant to legendary Hollywood movie mogul Gideon Cheim is, or why Jelly’s wallet was found in a seedy nightclub known as “The Panther Room.”

While she thinks Shell Scott’s going rate of one hundred dollars a day is rather expensive, she wants her missing alimony money as well as to find Jelly. She grudgingly agrees to pay and Shell Scott is on the case. One that will take him all across the Los Angeles area, into some adult activities with certain beautiful ladies, and a number of violent confrontations with several less than savory characters. That is when he isn’t smoking, drinking, or discussing things with the local cops.

Set in the 60’s, Shell Scott is the classic “man’s man.” He does it all and then some while making sure to be one step ahead of the bad and good guys alike. A fun read, The Cheim Manuscript: A Shell Scott Novel, twists and turns its way through 200 pages plus of mayhem and chaos all done with a slightly sarcastic tone. My first experience with a Shell Scott novel was highly entertaining and well worth the read.

The Cheim Manuscript: A Shell Scott Novel
Richard S. Prather
Pocket Books
February 1969
Paperback
215 Pages

This paperback was supplied by Barry Ergang years ago for me to read and review. He has been hounding me every so often about it ever since. In conniving desperation, Barry enlisted the unwitting assistance of Patti Abbott who declared that Richard S. Prather would be the focus for FFB today. One could almost hear Barry’s gleeful laughter as he turned up the pressure.

Richard S. Prather and the Shell Scott series have been a frequent topic here with Barry and occasionally Patrick Ohl. Other reviews are Pattern For Panic, Case Of The Vanishing Beauty, Double In Trouble, Strip for Murder, and The Death Gods   as well as short stories in anthologies such as The Masters of Noir Volume 1, as well as Volume 4, and The Best From Manhunt.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2016

Live Free or Tri: A collection of three short mystery stories is exactly what it purports to be as the three short story mystery tales in this book are all good ones. At forty-five pages this very recent release is also a very fast read.

“Live Free Or Die” starts off the book where the 31 year old Jack comes to Don Mills, a suburb of Toronto, Canada. He is ostensibly there to help with their collection rates having been sent by the US Headquarters down in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. After taking each staff member of the credit department out to lunch he finally gets to 21 year old Emmy. If you already know what probably soon happens you would be right. It is a classic tale of the bad man fooling around with the naive and far younger female employee. It is the aftermath where things go very differently than what one would normally expect in such a tale.

Thirty miles outside of Toronto and a world apart is the Holland Marsh. The rural area does not have grid locked traffic, high rise condos, or all the rest of the big city nonsense. It does have seven thousand acres of rich farm county that supports crops and a few locals. It also has the isolation relatively free of traffic to make learning the special skills of how to ride a bike in a triathlon.

For Carrie Anne Camack the swimming and running parts of the triathlon she can handle. Mastering the proper technique of the clipless pedal has been far more difficult. It isn’t very long till the event in July which is why she is out and about this early Sunday morning in the spring. She had a training plan and that did not include finding a body in “Murder In The Marsh.”

A triathlon also serves as the backdrop to the final story titled “The Cycopaths.” The Cycopath Triathlon Team is working the icy waters of Sunset Point Park in Colling Wood, Ontario near Lake Huron’s Georgian Bay. Half dozen swimmers went into the water for the 750 meter practice course, but not everyone came back out of the cold water alive.

These three fast reads in Live Free or Tri: A collection of three short mystery stories feature a lot of depth and plenty of mystery. The characters involved in the tales have plenty of backstory that skillfully comes into play as the story works forward in real time. Each mystery is complex with more than one small twist the result is a highly entertaining read from start to finish.

Live Free or Tri: A collection of three short mystery stories
Judy Penz Sheluk
http://www.judypenzsheluk.com
Self-Published
January 2016
ASIN: B01AMIV9Z4
E-Book (also available in print format)
45 Pages
$2.99

Material was recently made free to all on Amazon in e-book format where I picked it up to read and review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2016