A SIMPLE HOLLYWOOD BLACKMAIL SCHEME TURNS DEADLY
Morocco Jones figured this assignment would be a breeze. After all, sending a guy who
specialized in busting up crime syndicates and international spy rings to Los
Angeles to track down some two-bit blackmailer seemed like using a cannon to
kill a mosquito. To Morocco, it seemed like a good excuse for a nice little
Hollywood vacation ... catch a bit of sun, bed a few starlets, and relax poolside
with a large snifter of brandy.
But Morocco
couldn't have been more wrong! Because this was no two-bit blackmail scheme.
The half-a-billion-dollar payoff ... for whoever was behind the plot ... was money
worth killing for. From the moment Morocco Jones hit fabulous movieland, things
began to explode in some very strange and terrifying directions.
First, there was
the reception committee of musclemen who waylaid Morocco in the dark right
outside his client's fancy Spanish villa. Next was the ex-hood who had become
high priest of a powerful and sinister religious cult that didn't draw the line
even at murder when it came to keeping its secrets secret. Then, there was the
scandal sheet that raked in the do-re-mi from the studios ... for the truly
scandalous stories it didn't print about Screenland's kings and queens. Add in
a crooked cop named Doheny who didn't like Morocco's lip, and the unsolved
double murder of a famous screen beauty and her husband that tied into it all
somehow. Nor could Morocco overlook the incendiary blonde starlet in the oh-so
revealing dress who seemed to have slept with half his suspects and was always
one step ahead of him, wherever he went.
There were a lot of
angles to figure, even for an operative like Morocco Jones. His only hope of
solving it was a lush out cold from a 10-day bender and a raw cub reporter who
looked more destined to end up being written about in the obits than getting
his by-line on the story of the year ... when and if it broke. This was a case with
the distinct odor of an organized blackmail ring with syndicate tie-ups.
