The follow-up to The Dangers of Fog & The Devils in Sunlight
Book 3 in the Choirboy historical detective series
Available now
Summer 1940: Las Vegas is a sleepy frontier gambling town, not yet a mob-run haven. Guy McAfee, formerly known as the Al Capone of Los Angeles, has big plans for the little city.
But there’s a problem. Young men have been found dead in the desert from mysterious circumstances. That’s bad publicity. The police are understaffed and inept. So McAfee hires a big-city private detective to solve the case.
Enter Walt Tolliday. He arrives from LA to investigate. But he comes with personal issues - an acrimonious past with McAfee, a secret heartbreaking grief, and he’s a city slicker in cowboy country.
With a local woman reporter as his ally, Walt encounters outlaw traditions, corruption, depravity, and the hellish nature of the Nevada desert.
The Valley of Fire is the third book in the Choirboy historical detective series, which includes The Dangers of Fog and The Devils in Sunlight.
1941: Private investigator Walt Tolliday has been hired to babysit a Hollywood star with a wildman’s reputation. He has little tolerance for the wayward celebrity, but he commits to the job of keeping the actor out of trouble.
Then Walt investigates a peculiar summer camp on the outskirts of Los Angeles where boys are taught to pledge allegiance to Germany and its infamous leader.
That leads him to a suspicious organization who congregate in a public social hall to spread antisemitism and Nazi propaganda. Some members are dangerous. And the authorities don’t seem to care.
The United States has stayed out of the war in Europe. So far. Even so, Germans operating in Los Angeles are suspicious characters with dark intentions. Walt is compelled to spy on them.
Then he discovers he’s not alone.
