Fast Fade

New York: The Mysterious Press, 1987. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Tom Brewster (Author photograph). The format is approximately 5.75 inches by 8.5 inches. [10], 214 pages. Inscribed by the author on the half-title page. Inscription reads For Stan Stirman--Best wishes, Arthur Lyons Oct. 14, 1987. DJ has minor wear and soiling. Small ink notation on rep. This is a Jacob Asch mystery. Los Angeles private investigator Jacob Asch investigates the murder of Walter Cairns, a noted film director whose enemies were numerous. Arthur Lyons co-founded the Palm Springs Film Noir Festival and was a former Palm Springs city councilman. Lyons had published a nonfiction work in 1970, a study of Satanism and cult development in America called The Second Coming. However, it was his first novel, The Dead Are Discreet, in 1974 that made his mark. He delved into California cults, rebellious youth, pornography and other seedbeds of criminal activity. Critics admired "the pungency of his style, the neat planning and the avoidance of hokum," according to a 1975 article about Lyons' novels in the New York Times. The New York Times called Jacob Asch "one of the more convincing private eyes in the business, thanks to Mr. Lyons's skill at characterization." Arthur Lyons wrote 11 novels about a Southern California private eye named Jacob Asch. It introduced readers to 34-year-old Asch, an embittered but nonetheless witty and compassionate, half-Jewish former investigative reporter for the (fictional) Los Angeles Chronicle who drifted into a gumshoeing career, and found that it fit him. Jacob Asch was a cynic with a sense of integrity and a genuine concern for others. Derived from a Publishers Weekly article: Lori Norris asks private detective Jacob Asch to prove that director Walter Cairns is really William McVey, the man who deserted her 16 years ago, but the filmmaker's true identity is only the first puzzle in this well-plotted and intricate page-turner. When Asch shows up in Palm Springs, where Cairns is shooting Death in the Desert, he finds the set in turmoil; the situation becomes even more chaotic when Cairns's body is discovered, dressed in women's underwear and covered with obscene lipstick scrawls. As Asch searches for Cairns's killer, he finds that not only was the director generally hated, but that everybody involved in the film benefited from his death. In Lyons's fine mystery, the characters are well defined, the dialogue genuine, the situations believable and the narration first rate. The story moves along at a fast clip with few distractions or tangents, which is just as well, given the plot's many twists and layers. In his ninth adventure, Asch continues to be an engaging narrator.