The Ice Cream Blonde

In "The Ice Cream Blonde" by Ray Dyson, Neil Brand is a former cop turned private detective/security specialist for a Hollywood studio in the 1930s. His job is to protect the studio from bad publicity -- at any cost. When one of the studio's most famous actors fails to show up on the set of his latest picture, Brand is sent to investigate. What he uncovers is a lot more than either he or the studio had bargained for, including murder, missing women, and organized crime. Sometimes it's hard to tell who the good guys and the bad guys are. "The Ice Cream Blonde" is reminiscent of an old black and white movie, taking you back to a simpler time of gumshoes and the great depression. The author's voice is fresh and, for the time period, very authentic. I felt as if I had stepped back in time. It's a great book for a rainy afternoon when life is just too stressful and you need to escape into a great story. -- Taylor Jones. "The Ice Cream Blonde" by Ray Dyson is the story of 1930s Hollywood, its actors, their indiscretions, and what the studios did to keep those indiscretions from becoming public knowledge. Our hero, Neil Brand, is a former disgraced cop who now works for a Hollywood studio, and whose job it is to keep the studio from getting any bad publicity. To accomplish this, he dives into the underworld of organized crime, murder, drug addicts, and those who think their money and fame make them above the law. "The Ice Cream Blonde" is told in a blunt, honest, and gritty voice that fits the story to a tee. The character development is superb, the plot strong, fast-paced, and tension-filled. It held my interest from the very first word. -- Regan Murphy For fans of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, this will be a good read. Intrigue, conspiracy, murder, sex and drugs in 1931 Hollywood. The language captures that hard-boiled feel, and the protagonist has real depth. There is grit, and humor. There also is a wealth of 1930s slang, which may throw you a time or two if you are not used to it, but not enough to mar the story. I hope there are more Neil Brand thrillers to come. -- Steve Goble "The Ice Cream Blonde" kept me up all night. Ray Dyson's saga of sex, drugs, blackmail and murder in 1931 Hollywood is what critics like to call a "page-turner." The hero is a World War I veteran and a former Los Angeles Police Department cop named Neil Brand, and the cast is full of tycoons, crooks, drug addicts and professional liars. It's all about the movies and the start of the "talkies" in the early years of the Depression. There's a big body count and a plot that ranges from Argentina to Los Angeles to China. Brand, who was framed by his partner and kicked off the LAPD, now works security for York Brothers Studio. His boss is the wildly eccentric Harry York. Brand's job is to keep things quiet when bobos like Johnny Cutter go missing and Lena Landers, the "Ice Cream Blonde," get into sex orgies, drugs and eventually into murder and blackmail. Along the way, Brand works with the studio's publicity guy, Jimmy Gallen. The two of them wind up hiding bodies and covering up murders. Or at least Gallen does. And Brand encounters his worst enemy, LAPD Sgt. Elmo Jones, an unbelievably vile cop. Add some Mafia types and an actress who murdered her parents and you have quite a cast. -- Ron Simon