A TWO REEL​
MURDER
A Maisy Malone Mystery
Starring
​Mabel Normand & Mack Sennett
Comedy Vaudevillian Maisy Malone went to Hollywood in 1912, at the behest of Mack Sennett of Keystone Studios, to become a star in motion pictures. By chance she stumbled into a murder. Los Angeles Police Detective Ed Browning intended to write off the death of actor Leslie Clover as an accident until an outraged Maisy said she could prove the man was slain. To top that off, she bet him she could solve the homicide before he could, so the contest was on to catch a killer. Browning had a bunch of inexperienced, clumsy, bungling cops to help him, while Maisy had the aid of silent screen actress and comedy queen Mabel Normand. The detective and the actress went to the wire nose-to-nose in their race to solve the crime and needed a photo finish to determine the winner in this cozy murder mystery.
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ISBN-13: 978-0-910937-43-6 KINDLE EDITION
ISBN-13: 978-0-910937-44-3 PAPERBACK
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At that instant, a shadowy figure lunged at her. She tried to elude her attacker but failed as the two of them crashed onto the kitchen floor.
Startled but not stunned and assuming the attacker was a man, Maisy fought back physically and verbally. “Get off me!” She made a pair of fists and began pummeling her assailant on whatever part of his body presented itself as a target. “Get off me, you bastard!” She found his head and struck one side then the other. “Get off, bastard!” Her next two blows whiffed the air.
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MURDER ON
RATTLESNAKE
ISLAND
A Maisy Malone Mystery
Starring
​Mabel Normand & Mack Sennett
MAISY MALONE and her three best friends have their Christmas day picnic at the beach spoiled by the discovery of a dead Japanese fisherman. They report the body to the Santa Monica police who notify the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department because the body was found outside the city’s jurisdiction. The sheriff decides not to waste any time or money investigating the murder. Maisy is offended by their racist attitude, so she and Mabel Normand decide to use their Christmas vacation from making movies to investigate the crime on their own. The clues lead them to the back alleys of Rattlesnake Island, the old name for San Pedro’s Terminal Island, where they discover a secret society of cutthroats and smugglers that has no ethnic limits. The two young women, with the assistance of L.A. Police Detective Sergeant Eddie Brown, snoop where they shouldn’t and nearly lose their lives as they hunt down the killer of Japanese fisherman Masi Tanaka.
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MURDER IS NO LAUGHING
MATTER
A MAISY MALONE MYSTERY
STARRING
ROSCOE ARBUCKLE & MINTA DURFEE
Three guests at the plushest hotel in Los Angeles die in their beds under mysterious circumstances.
The hotel manager breathes a sigh of relief because he believes in the old superstition that bad things happen in a cycle of three. LAPD Detective Ed Browning and his partner aren’t buying the manager’s tale. They start investigating and soon hear the story the sister of the dead girl seeing her sister’s ghost, talking to her, and learning her death was not by natural causes. More suspicious than ever, Browning and partner then are suddenly told to back off by their captain. This makes them even more doubtful that two old people and one young died of natural causes in the same hotel. Since they can’t officially investigate, they turn to their friend Maisy Malone for help. Maisy rounds up a cadre of fellow amateur sleuths and sends them out to do the leg work Browning and his partner can’t do. Maisy and company hit the streets and highways to dig up evidence, and in four days they meet at the same hotel with their witnesses and suspects.