Too Soon Dead
An Alexander Brass Mystery
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4.0 • 8 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Follow the adventures of a famed newspaper columnist through 1930s New York City in this first installment of a witty and atmospheric historical mystery series.
Columnist extraordinary Alexander Brass needs a story—but will his latest end in his own death?
It all begins when a furtive tipster promises an explosive story and gives Morgan DeWitt—assistant to New York World celebrity newsman Alexander Brass—an envelope filled with photographs of the most compromising nature.
But when the tipster turns up murdered, Brass and his team resolve to find the killer, running the gauntlet of blackmailing Nazis, accommodating nymphomaniacs and US senators on the way.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nefarious doings among movers and shakers in Depression-era New York City animate a lively chase for a story-and a murderer-for newspaper nightclub columnist Alexander Brass. It all begins when a furtive tipster promises an explosive story and gives Brass an envelope filled with photographs of several powerful people caught in compromising sexual positions. Intrigued, Brass sends a newspaper stringer to follow the mystery man. When the stringer is murdered, Brass and his team resolve to find the killer. Brass's young assistant, Morgan DeWitt, tells the story in a smart, wide-eyed style that perfectly fits the time and place. The trail leads Brass, his gorgeous and indispensable secretary, Gloria Adams, and DeWitt to anti-Nazi German immigrants (it's 1935) and a stripper who doesn't know about her photographer brother's sleazy sideline. The team's press clout gets them close to a U.S. senator who was among the photo subjects. He has a lavish estate and a beautiful nymphomaniac daughter who charms DeWitt but may be after information. Walk-ons by Charles Lindbergh and W.C. Fields add spice to the already bright, funny dialogue. Kurland (A Plague of Spies, etc.) constructs a thoroughly engaging showcase for a likable bunch of characters.
