HUGH MONN – Private Detective
CATCH A RISING STAR
By Lee Houston Jr.
Prose Press
175 pages
Last year I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing writer
Lee Houston Junior’s debut title featuring his futuristic private eye, Hugh Monn. It was a collection of tales showcasing the
white haired, ex-military vet and his life on the alien world of Frontera. I
gave the book major thumbs up and I trust all of you went out a grabbed a
copy. That book reminded me a great deal
of the 1950s paperback era and all the marvelous sci-fi authors who appeared in
the pages of those Ace Doubles.
Now comes Hugh Monn’s newest case and, much to my delight,
it’s a full length novel.
A film company, Stellar Studios, arrives on Frontera to
shoot a romantic-comedy vid featuring the very sexy and popular alien star,
Ruby Kwartz. When her human manager,
Augustus Dubois, recommends they hire a local to act as an additional bodyguard. The lucky man they choose is our
protagonist. From the start Hugh isn’t
comfortable around the movie entourage finding they gauche and egotistical but
they are willing to pay triple his usual rates.
Typical of all private eyes, there’s no way Hugh can turn down that kind
of creds.
Then the big star’s publicist, Nola Pierce, also a member of
the same red-skinned race, confides in Hugh that she believes Ruby is in real
danger. Although unconvinced at the
start, as the gumshoe begins to investigate he uncovers a few unsavory facts
about Dubois and Ruby’s co-star, Dirk Hartford.
Then, only hours after location filming begins on a nearby beach, a
flying camera goes bonkers and nearly crashes into Monn, Hartford and the actor’s Primoid
bodyguard. Monn doesn’t believe in
accidents, especially when he’s working a case.
Is Ruby Kwartz’s life in jeapordy?
And if so was the beach incident meant to eliminate him or her
co-star? And if so, why?
Houston
delivers all the standard wise-cracking humor these kind of mysteries of noted for
and it is surprising how well the form works even in such an exotic off-world
setting. All the while reading “Catch A
Rising Star,” I was reminded a great deal of those wonderful Shell Scott
mysteries by the late Richard Prather. That
both Hugh and Shell have premature white hair just can’t be a coincidence; can
it? This is a marvelous book written by
a talented writer who knows both genres well and thus merges them so smoothly
as to be totally entertaining. This book
cemented my membership in the Hugh Monn fan club, a group that’s about to get a
whole lot bigger. Take my word for that.
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