Introducing HIGH RISK

The U. S. economy is booming. So is Hollywood, as studios at last come to grips with the technological revolution that is synchronized sound. From the perspective of early October 1929, the future is as bright as a switched-on Klieg light.

Not everybody is singing in the rain, though. Casey, an ex-fighter pilot and Great War veteran, is still living with the repercussions of a very hostile encounter with a very powerful—and short-tempered—young man: the 23-year-old Howard Hughes. When your only marketable skill is flying, you can't afford to piss off the millionaire who is making the most expensive aviation movie ever.

But the mercurial Mr. Hughes turns out to be the least of Casey's problems. When flying for a low-budget Poverty Row studio is the only work he can get, Casey soon finds more than his career is at stake. A duplicitous director, scheming or desperate stars, a crooked criminal justice system, and good old-fashioned murder threaten to bring Casey down in a crash he won't be able to walk away from.

High Risk is a murder mystery that, like its hero, explores the low-level fringes and the elevated heights of Hollywood at the beginning of its golden age. Chapter One appears on this website on Monday, 6 May 2019.