The Bedroom Bolero

Ed Noon #13

by Michael Avallone

ED NOON MYSTERY #13

The Bedroom Bolero

Five murdered nude lovelies are all found in rooms painted red, with Ravel’s Bolero playing endlessly on a turntable. The Evil Evelyn, a showbiz phenomenon, is dead center of a bizarre serial killer hunt that has Captain Mike Monks completely baffled, so he enlists Noon’s aide, and Ed is knee-deep in trouble again. This story marks the first appearance of Ed Noon’s new secretary, beautiful African American Melissa Mercer, who remains with Noon for the rest of the series.

The Adventures of Ed Noon, Private Eye, spanning over 30 novels written
between 1953 and 1990. Noon starts out dirt poor with a tiny office in Midtown Manhattan (his “Mouse Auditorium”) but success moves him to better digs, a lovely secretary (Melissa Mercer) and, eventually, the most important client of all :the President of the United States. The series concludes with a daring turn towards science fiction in the last two novels. Through it all, the wisecracking Noon is consistent: a movie and baseball-obsessed romantic who always fights the good fight. And, more often than not, wins.

Genres: Mystery, Crime

156 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Also wrote Nick Carter: Killmaster series under Nick Carter alias with others

Michael Angelo Avallone was a prolific American author of mystery and secret agent fiction, and novelizations based on TV and films. He claimed a lifetime output over 1,000 works, including novels, short stories, articles, published under his own name or 17+ pseudonyms.
His first novel, The Tall Dolores 1953 introduced Ed Noon PI. After three dozen more, the most recent was 1989. The final volume, "Since Noon Yesterday" is, as of 2005, unpublished.
Tie-ins included Man from U.N.C.L.E., Hawaii Five-0, Mannix, Friday the 13th Part III, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and even The Partridge Family. In late 1960s novellas featured U.N.C.L.E.-like INTREX. He is sometimes cited incorrectly as the creator of Man from U.N.C.L.E. (as in the January 1967 issue of The Saint Magazine), or having died March 1.
As Troy Conway, Rod Damon: The Coxeman novel series 1967-73, parodied Man from UNCLE. An unusual entry was the novelization of the 1982 TV mini-series, A Woman Called Golda, the life of Golda Meir.
Among the many pseudonyms that Michael Avallone used (male and female) were: Mile Avalione, Mike Avalone, Nick Carter, Troy Conway, Priscilla Dalton, Mark Dane, Jeanne-Anne dePre, Dora Highland, Stuart Jason, Steve Michaels, Dorothea Nile, Edwina Noone, John Patrick, Vance Stanton, Sidney Stuart, Max Walker, and Lee Davis Willoughby.
From 1962-5, Avallone edited the Mystery Writers of America newsletter. Personal Life:
He married 1949 Lucille Asero (one son; marriage dissolved), 1960 Fran Weinstein (one son, one daughter); died Los Angeles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_...
http://www.thrillingdetective.com/tri...

Reviews

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world was changing for P.I. Ed Noon. The Mouse Auditorium was a thing of the past, Noon having moved to more uptown digs. His secretary had run off, gotten married, an Noon had hired a young black woman, Melissa Mercer, to replace her. Now he just needed a case to keep the new prosperity going.

Then Captain Mike Monks, the sole cop he could call friend, shows up at his door. He wanted to know what Noon knew about a piece of music called “Bolero.” A stiff had been found in a bedroom with four red painted walls, no furniture other than a record player with that record playing over and over. The rest of the day was a bust, only one woman who wanted her estranged husband beat up and then insulted his new secretary, and Monks called at the end of the day.

Two more corpses, all three with the same things in common: all with a heart condition(and treated at the same hospital), naked and strangled in a furniture less room but for a record player with the same recording of Ravel’s Bolero. posed amid walls of red paint(Bolero Red as it turns out), all three with double initial names(D E & A).

Then the performance artist with the name Evelyn Eleven wants to hire him to beat up a man who threatened to kill her. Her act was accompanied by the Bolero song and her supposed future killer was named Thaddeus Orelob.

It all leads to a strange case for our favorite private eye.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Bedroom Bolero is the thirteenth Ed Noon mystery. Ed Noon, for those of you who have been absent, is a wise- cracking solo private eye who works out of an office so small that he's nicknamed it the
Mouse Auditorium. This particular story begins with a great racy cover.

Noon has shed the Mouse Auditorium for a new fancy office and actually hired a secretary, Melissa. It's perhaps a sign that the book is a little dated that the author makes a big deal about the fact that
Melissa is Black. Nevertheless, the story holds up well. Captain Mike Monks, Noon's only friend on the force, solicits Noon's advice on a case. Seems a series of nude corpses have been showing up, each
with Bolero playing on the phonograph. Shortly thereafter, Evelyn Eleven, a showbiz person, wants to engage Noon's services before she dies with the Bolero playing in the background. She wants Noon to put some fear into her stalker, Mr Orelob. This isn't the best of the Ed
Noon books, but its still fun to read and better than a lot else that's
out there.

[B.G. Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had just put down Stephen Marlowe's "Violence is my Buisness" at page 100, as it was boring me to death. I needed a detective novel that could hold my interest. Ed Gorman wrote a novel called Murder Straight Up. That's how I like my detective fiction...straight up. And keep the shots coming. In The Bedroom Bolero, Avallone doesn't keep you waiting long for the next murder. Its just what my attention span needed.

The murders in The Bedroom Bolero are being committed in ritualistic fashion, with the victims all sharing a few things in common,which I won't spoil of course. Soon, Detective Ed Noon is in a race with the other authorities, trying to gather enough evidence to beat the killer to his or her next victim. I had a feeling that Ed Noon would be a wise cracking detective, and I was right.This sort of detective can annoy me sometimes, but Ed Noon was just earnest and tough enough that I didn't mind the corny jokes.There was practically no filler in this story either, which I appreciated after the Stephen Marlowe book. I wasn't completely caught off guard when the killer was revealed, and you might not be either, but I still really enjoyed this little murder mystery.

I'll be checking out more of Avallone's books in the future. I think he's most recognized as the creator of the Ed Noon series but he wrote in multiple genres under different names, so there's a lot to delve into. If all his books are at least this good I'm sure to become a fan