The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles
Ken Kuhlken
Poisoned Pen, May 2010, $24.95
ISBN: 9781590586976
In 1926 in Echo Park in Los Angeles, Negro Frank Gaines is lynched near the temple of evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, but the two major newspapers remain silent re the murder. Dance orchestra lead Tom Hickey learns about the death of a friend from an underground paper. He asks his neighbor LAPD Defective Leo Weiss if in deed the lynching occurred and if yes what Police Chief Davis is doing about it. Leo says yes and no to the first question as Gaines was murdered, but the cops are insisting nothing happened.
Tom investigates the murder starting with a visit to Aimee Semple McPherson’s Angelus Temple. However, he soon is followed and beaten up with warnings from speakeasy owner and Klansman Leo that if he fails to drop his inquiry, his new enemies will insure he does so permanently even as he concludes local political corruption led to the lynching.
Although there is too much going on between 1926 cop-business-politician-newspaper-evangelist connections, the orchestra, the hero’s family life (especially his sister) and the investigation; readers will enjoy this fast-paced historical amateur sleuth mystery. The story line focuses on Los Angeles during the Roaring Twenties that comes to light through Tom’s eyes. Fast-paced, fans will enjoy The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles about to be exposed by a sermon of Aimee Semple McPherson.
Harriet Klausner
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