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Sam Hunter #2
Sleaze
Los Angeles private eye Sam Hunter doesn’t have a soft side. Everything about him is a hard as a knuckle to the face. So, when a call for help comes in from a trashy porn magazine, it’s not out of the goodness of his heart that Sam takes the case. It has more to do with the curves of the magazine’s sizzling-hot editor.
The magazine is called Sleaze, and that’s exactly what has made it the target of a fanatical cult, one willing to shed blood to cleanse its “holy land.” Soon, Sam finds out that morality and sin aren’t so black and white as his investigation slides down a path towards X-rated videos, a Tijuana corpse, and thugs that want Sam dead. Unfortunately for them, they’ve chosen a hard man to kill.
From L.A. Morse, the Edgar Award-winning author of The Flesh Eaters, The Old Dick and The Big Enchilada, comes another electrifying tale of Sam Hunter, a low-down, dirty fighter who takes a hit and hits back harder.
The magazine is called Sleaze, and that’s exactly what has made it the target of a fanatical cult, one willing to shed blood to cleanse its “holy land.” Soon, Sam finds out that morality and sin aren’t so black and white as his investigation slides down a path towards X-rated videos, a Tijuana corpse, and thugs that want Sam dead. Unfortunately for them, they’ve chosen a hard man to kill.
From L.A. Morse, the Edgar Award-winning author of The Flesh Eaters, The Old Dick and The Big Enchilada, comes another electrifying tale of Sam Hunter, a low-down, dirty fighter who takes a hit and hits back harder.
240 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1985
4 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
L.A. Morse
11 books10 followersaka Runa Fairleigh.
Larry Alan Morse grew up in Los Angeles. He attended the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco State College, and somehow managed to get two degrees in English Lit. He moved to Toronto in the late ‘60s, and has had the usual variety of jobs, including a brief stint in educational television and five years as an administrator at the University of Toronto. Upon returning from extended travels through Southeast Asia, he decided to try and write a novel – something delicate and sensitive and artistic. He discovered just what he was looking for in the true story of Sawney Beane and his family, The Flesh Eaters, the 15th century cannibal clan who ate their way through a good part of Scotland.
L. A. Morse has written four other crime novels. The Old Dick won an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America; The Big Enchilada and Sleaze, featuring Sam Hunter, the L. A. private eye who, according to one reviewer, “makes Dirty Harry look like Mother Teresa”; and he was instrumental in arranging the publication of An Old-Fashioned Mystery, the lost masterpiece by the enigmatic and reclusive author, Runa Fairleigh. He shifted to another medium with the publication of Video Trash and Treasures, a two-volume guide to the obscure and bizarre movies of the 1980s.
For the last 15 years, L. A. Morse has worked as a visual artist, primarily sculpture. He is an avid birder with over 1,500 species on his world list. When not off looking for birds in the tropics, he currently divides his time between stone carving and making a living in the stock market.
Larry Alan Morse grew up in Los Angeles. He attended the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco State College, and somehow managed to get two degrees in English Lit. He moved to Toronto in the late ‘60s, and has had the usual variety of jobs, including a brief stint in educational television and five years as an administrator at the University of Toronto. Upon returning from extended travels through Southeast Asia, he decided to try and write a novel – something delicate and sensitive and artistic. He discovered just what he was looking for in the true story of Sawney Beane and his family, The Flesh Eaters, the 15th century cannibal clan who ate their way through a good part of Scotland.
L. A. Morse has written four other crime novels. The Old Dick won an Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America; The Big Enchilada and Sleaze, featuring Sam Hunter, the L. A. private eye who, according to one reviewer, “makes Dirty Harry look like Mother Teresa”; and he was instrumental in arranging the publication of An Old-Fashioned Mystery, the lost masterpiece by the enigmatic and reclusive author, Runa Fairleigh. He shifted to another medium with the publication of Video Trash and Treasures, a two-volume guide to the obscure and bizarre movies of the 1980s.
For the last 15 years, L. A. Morse has worked as a visual artist, primarily sculpture. He is an avid birder with over 1,500 species on his world list. When not off looking for birds in the tropics, he currently divides his time between stone carving and making a living in the stock market.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 29, 2024
In his terrific Sam Hunter private eye series, Morse has re-imagined the classic 1950’s private eye in all his cynical, hardboiled glory and re-planted that private eye in 1980’s smoggy, sleazy Los Angeles, the land of sunshine and golden opportunity. It is unfortunate that Morse only published two novels in this series. There’s enough life in this series to have justified quite a few more novels. Sleaze is the second of the two Sam Hunter novels and it is, in many ways, even better than the first one. While Hunter is still the same rough-and-tumble solo private eye here, his over-the-top dialogue and actions feel more natural in this novel.
While much of the underlying plot and the twists are classic 1950’s private eye fodder, Morse has done a great job of bringing it into the 1980’s and a whole new world. Included are the remnants of a 1970’s cult with a bug-eyed charismatic leader, a woman who runs a men’s magazine hidden behind her initials, seedy motels, jaunts into Tijuana, and bodies strewn just about everywhere.
Hunter is a return to the old-time private ops. He isn’t trying to be clever or funny or cute. Rather, he wades right into any battle no matter the odds and slices and dices his opponents until nothing less than an entire MASH unit is going to stitch them back together. A one- man army might describe him properly.
But, what really makes this series is the cynical descriptions the author gives such as the receptionist who seems to have succeeded if her goal was to look like a cheap Vegas hooker or the guy described as a mutant with greenish skin, a pale pink Mohawk cut, black leather overalls, and two-hundred dollar roller skates.
This isn't a cozy little mystery by any means. If you are looking for the country retreat with the clever cocker spaniel digging up clues, look elsewhere. This is a journey into the dirty, sleazy, seedy underbelly of Los Angeles and there are no innocent angels left standing. A great story. A blast to read.
While much of the underlying plot and the twists are classic 1950’s private eye fodder, Morse has done a great job of bringing it into the 1980’s and a whole new world. Included are the remnants of a 1970’s cult with a bug-eyed charismatic leader, a woman who runs a men’s magazine hidden behind her initials, seedy motels, jaunts into Tijuana, and bodies strewn just about everywhere.
Hunter is a return to the old-time private ops. He isn’t trying to be clever or funny or cute. Rather, he wades right into any battle no matter the odds and slices and dices his opponents until nothing less than an entire MASH unit is going to stitch them back together. A one- man army might describe him properly.
But, what really makes this series is the cynical descriptions the author gives such as the receptionist who seems to have succeeded if her goal was to look like a cheap Vegas hooker or the guy described as a mutant with greenish skin, a pale pink Mohawk cut, black leather overalls, and two-hundred dollar roller skates.
This isn't a cozy little mystery by any means. If you are looking for the country retreat with the clever cocker spaniel digging up clues, look elsewhere. This is a journey into the dirty, sleazy, seedy underbelly of Los Angeles and there are no innocent angels left standing. A great story. A blast to read.
October 16, 2017
This book made me do something that most other books could not. Laugh out loud. Many times. Especially the "You can rub your pollen on me" part. This was the second book, and regretfully the last Sam Hunter novel. This was over the top with humor and of course, sleaze. At certain parts this reads like those letters from the old Penthouse Forum. "I never thought it would happen to me, but..." The private eye has sex with multiple women in between his search for who is writing threatening letters to a publication called Sleaze.
The characters are well played out. The story and situations the author puts them in are at times, hysterical. Like I said, I was laughing out loud throughout this book. The plot unwinds at a nice pace and keeps you guessing. The one complaint is that I saw the ending coming a mile away. Still, it goes nicely with the whole theme of the book. It's a shame that this series has only two books to it's name. pure genius.
The characters are well played out. The story and situations the author puts them in are at times, hysterical. Like I said, I was laughing out loud throughout this book. The plot unwinds at a nice pace and keeps you guessing. The one complaint is that I saw the ending coming a mile away. Still, it goes nicely with the whole theme of the book. It's a shame that this series has only two books to it's name. pure genius.
August 24, 2025
We love stories about a raunchy private eye.
Sleazy, as the title promises. Morse descends us to the darker subcultures of LA with deranged punchlines, worse jokes, and smutty characters. A hardboiled detective noir that intersects cult religions, gangsters, drugs, and the porn industry. He basically takes all the typical tropes of the genre and made them ten times swampier.
Considering the themes and subject matters, it’s smartly written and not as misogynistic. I give it a high 3, only because the plot was a bit bloated and didn’t know wtf was going on at one point. But even then it’s hard to be bored or unimpressed when the author writes like this.
All in all, a great piece of pulp fiction that will get you laughing at the wrong things. Sam Hunter is a hot piece of shit. Tastefully tasteless.
Sleazy, as the title promises. Morse descends us to the darker subcultures of LA with deranged punchlines, worse jokes, and smutty characters. A hardboiled detective noir that intersects cult religions, gangsters, drugs, and the porn industry. He basically takes all the typical tropes of the genre and made them ten times swampier.
Considering the themes and subject matters, it’s smartly written and not as misogynistic. I give it a high 3, only because the plot was a bit bloated and didn’t know wtf was going on at one point. But even then it’s hard to be bored or unimpressed when the author writes like this.
All in all, a great piece of pulp fiction that will get you laughing at the wrong things. Sam Hunter is a hot piece of shit. Tastefully tasteless.
January 29, 2023
Depraved and perverted
February 20, 2017
An extremely brutal gratuitous sex filled Private Detective novel.
August 17, 2023
A not bad hard-boiled pi story. The fights were good. But too much description regarding LA and it's joints not to mention the over descriptions of food dishes Hunter eats... It was like Hunter was on Facebook describing his various meals
January 15, 2024
Low rent Mike Hammer detective story, full of sex and violence. The absurdly violent third act almost redeems the obvious plot twist, but the story is too dumb to really recommend.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews