FRISCO The Dead Client - Larry Rau

This fast-paced Noir page turner will satisfy readers dying to see strong modern women who are smart and tough enough to get the best of both Nazis and their own pet hard boiled detective.

Set in the milieu of San Francisco and the Bay Area in the late 1930’s, Frisco waterfront detective Phil Bourbon meets a rich new client with a wad of money who’s in a lot of trouble. 60 minutes later she turns up dead in his ’35 Plymouth.

According to his pal Shultz, from Homicide, the hard boiled detective is a suspect until proven otherwise. At first, Phil’s girlfriend Lily - the owner of a Chinatown Night Club – seems nothing more than a “deliciously wrapped chocolate”. Lily is, however, anything but trivial.

Set against the pre-war American back drop of loud and ubiquitous Nazi propaganda and the free circulation of fascist ideas, Phil is unwittingly thrust into a hidden world of German and Japanese espionage and murder.

Sally – his mysterious client and formidable “army brat” – becomes his ally in a no holds barred fight against the Nazi spies and moles who killed her father and sister. Or is she?

Together they find allies among the old Wobblies and socialist egg ranchers populating the countryside around Petaluma and Pt. Reyes, and among the fishermen of China Camp, and Italians of North Beach. Luckily Morris Shultz believes their incredible story.

As the Germans and Japanese pursue Phil and Sally, the tables are turned. Surprised spies find themselves being hunted and killed while most Americans, official and otherwise, seem to be sleep walking.

Can this pair “running wild” - shooting up small towns with a piper cub and a tommy-gun - stop the Nazis before they get their stolen secrets out of the country? Can Sally and Phil convince the Army and FBI that they are the good guys, despite a trail of explosions and dead Germans who had diplomatic immunity?  And Where does Lily fit into all this?

 A fancy Packard is waiting. Fog horns are moaning. Cathedral Bells are chiming. The cannery gals are sharpening their knives down on the docks. Odd radio signals are coming from a cottage up on the hill.

Read on and find out!

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While this is fast paced cinematic pulp, keen readers will rejoice in its historical and geographic accuracy, and perhaps in its thoroughly patriotic left wing tone, and spare but colorful style.

You can learn more about the making of this book on the FriscoBooks website.