Biggest Liar in Los Angeles

James Ellroy fans will welcome Kuhlken's intriguing sixth California Century mystery (after 2008's ""The Vagabond Virgins""). Set in 1926 and the first in the series chronologically, this entry focuses on the early career of PI Tom Hickey. Outraged to learn that a black friend has been lynched in L.A.'s Echo Park, news that the mainstream media has suppressed, Hickey risks his day job as a meat salesman to look into the killing. Hickey explores possible links to crooked cops, the Ku Klux Klan, city hall, newspaper moguls William Randolph Hearst and Harry Chandler, and evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who recently resurfaced after a mysterious five-month disappearance. Kuhlken mixes historical and fictional characters with an ease that will remind many of Max Allan Collins's Nate Heller series (""True Crime"", etc.). He's equally adept at melding the murder inquiry with Hickey's struggles with his dysfunctional family. ""(May)"" .