Murderer's Paradise

by Michael Mallory

About the Author: Michael Mallory is the author of 20 books, fiction and nonfiction, and some 150 short stories, mostly mystery. For the past three decades he has worked as a Hollywood film historian and entertainment journalist with more than 600 magazine and newspaper articles to his credit, and occasional television actor. He lives in greater Los Angeles.

Excerpt

“Tony Farland!” a voice cried behind him. “I was hoping you’d be here!”

“In the bathroom?” Tony replied, standing at a urinal in the palatial men’s room of the historic Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

Phil Brodie laughed. “At the show, I mean,” he said. “I figured a retro double-feature of Return of the Zombie and The Ape Man’s Revenge would be enough to draw you away from your computer.”

Brodie and Farland were both in the same racket—film history—though Tony had the higher profile, being the author of a handful of books on Hollywood’s golden age and a frequent talking head for DVD extras. It was, however, not lucrative enough to quit the day job, which was as a researcher for the Motion Picture Academy. Brodie was more of an academic, teaching film at UCLA in between writing articles for fan magazines.

After Tony washed and dried his hands, Brodie said, “Let’s go somewhere we can talk in private.” They found a corner of the courtyard that was empty.

“If you want me to speak to your class again, you could just email me,” Tony said.

“No, it’s not that. This is big, real big.”

“Okay, Phil, what is it?”

“They found Murderer’s Paradise.”

Now Tony was interested. “A print of it?”

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