A Hollywood writer is framed for murder by a director. The writer has plans for revenge.
Brady Jordan has been paid five grand by director Sebastion Kyle to get evidence that his much younger wife has been fooling around. He always pays in cash except for the last time when he gave him a check. Brady makes the mistake of falling for the woman. He knows a detective agency is following her around. That doesn’t stop him from meeting her in a restaurant, shows her some pot and says he’ll meet her at her beach house for a fun night and to talk over their relationship.
Brady goes to the beach house, walks inside and there she is….strangled. The detectives are right behind him and hold him for the cops. At his trial he’s found not guilty on the murder charge. The judge thinks he’s guilty anyway and sends him up for two years on a pot possession charge. He could be out on parole in nine months.
He’s sent to a minimum security prison farm and given a job in the library. The other prisoner running it is Canadian actor Scott Ballantine. He didn’t have much luck catching on in Hollywood except as a drunk and a brawler. The two become friends and it turns out Scott will be paroled two days ahead of Brady. Scott decided to do his whole sentence so he wouldn’t have parole supervision.
Brady says he’ll pay him five grand to get into Kyle’s house and find the check. At his trial Kyle denied ever employing him so he knows for sure he was set up. Scott agrees and his first stop Brady’s aunt’s house to get some money. The aunt is told it was owed to him. She knew ahead of time and gave him an envelope with fresh bills.
Scott buys a used car with the cash and that makes the local sheriff suspicious. He’s quickly cleared and drives to a fishing resort and rents a cabin. It’s the same place where Kyle has a beach house….the murder scene.
Kyle has a close relationship with his daughter Tina. He’s working on a movie about the murder. He knows who did it but can’t bring himself to tell her. Meanwhile Brady is now out on parole ready to make his plan reality…with a few differences.
This is really good and well worth checking out as is MacKenzie’s John Raven series.
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