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Chester Drum #19
Drumbeat - Erica
Protecting an actor takes Drum into the seedy underworld of psychedelia
Terminal illness and regret go hand-in-hand. Two months ago, Amos Littlejohn was in the prime of life, and had plenty of energy to be enraged when his pregnant daughter was abandoned by her husband, matinee idol Ahmed Shiraz. Now stricken with leukemia, Littlejohn is near death, and beginning to regret taking out a contract on the actor's life. He hires international private eye Chester Drum to call off the hit and protect Shiraz until his life is safe. On his first night on the job, Drum's partner takes a shotgun blast meant for the actor. Wanting nothing more than to wring Shiraz's neck, Drum follows him to Europe, where he must contend with assassins, beatniks, and the powerful effects of an experimental drug called LSD.
Terminal illness and regret go hand-in-hand. Two months ago, Amos Littlejohn was in the prime of life, and had plenty of energy to be enraged when his pregnant daughter was abandoned by her husband, matinee idol Ahmed Shiraz. Now stricken with leukemia, Littlejohn is near death, and beginning to regret taking out a contract on the actor's life. He hires international private eye Chester Drum to call off the hit and protect Shiraz until his life is safe. On his first night on the job, Drum's partner takes a shotgun blast meant for the actor. Wanting nothing more than to wring Shiraz's neck, Drum follows him to Europe, where he must contend with assassins, beatniks, and the powerful effects of an experimental drug called LSD.
154 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 1967
About the author
Stephen Marlowe
193 books26 followersAka Milton S. Lesser, Adam Chase, Andrew Frazer, Jason Ridgway, C.H. Thames.
Stephen Marlowe (1928–2008) was the author of more than fifty novels, including nearly two dozen featuring globe-trotting private eye Chester Drum. Born Milton Lesser, Marlowe was raised in Brooklyn and attended the College of William and Mary. After several years writing science fiction under his given name, he legally adopted his pen name, and began focusing on Chester Drum, the Washington-based detective who first appeared in The Second Longest Night (1955).
Although a private detective akin to Raymond Chandler’s characters, Drum was distinguished by his jet-setting lifestyle, which carried him to various exotic locales from Mecca to South America. These espionage-tinged stories won Marlowe acclaim, and he produced more than one a year before ending the series in 1968. After spending the 1970s writing suspense novels like The Summit (1970) and The Cawthorn Journals (1975), Marlowe turned to scholarly historical fiction. He lived much of his life abroad, in Switzerland, Spain, and France, and died in Virginia in 2008.
Marlowe received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 1997.
Stephen Marlowe (1928–2008) was the author of more than fifty novels, including nearly two dozen featuring globe-trotting private eye Chester Drum. Born Milton Lesser, Marlowe was raised in Brooklyn and attended the College of William and Mary. After several years writing science fiction under his given name, he legally adopted his pen name, and began focusing on Chester Drum, the Washington-based detective who first appeared in The Second Longest Night (1955).
Although a private detective akin to Raymond Chandler’s characters, Drum was distinguished by his jet-setting lifestyle, which carried him to various exotic locales from Mecca to South America. These espionage-tinged stories won Marlowe acclaim, and he produced more than one a year before ending the series in 1968. After spending the 1970s writing suspense novels like The Summit (1970) and The Cawthorn Journals (1975), Marlowe turned to scholarly historical fiction. He lived much of his life abroad, in Switzerland, Spain, and France, and died in Virginia in 2008.
Marlowe received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 1997.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 25, 2022
It was published in 1967 and it is the era of hippies and psychedelic stuff and just about everyone in this novel, including Drum, ends up taking a long strange trip on LSD. But Marlowe attacks that plot line with the same skill he does everything else and it works quite well here without being silly as drugs are in other novels of that era.
At the heart of the plot is what happens when you hire a hitman and want to call off the hit but can't contact anyone once the action has started. Here, you call in Chester Drum, PI and man of many talents.
Throw in Barroom brawls with sailors, gunfights in the streets of New York, a Nordic goddess (the title character Erica) who stops every conversation whenever she walks in a room, the canals of Amsterdam, the ski slopes of Switzerland, a matinee idol so stuck on his own looks and charm that no one can stand him, and maybe a cruise across the Atlantic.
It may not be much of a mystery but it's a great action-oriented adventure story. A very enjoyable read. Highly recommended paperback original.
At the heart of the plot is what happens when you hire a hitman and want to call off the hit but can't contact anyone once the action has started. Here, you call in Chester Drum, PI and man of many talents.
Throw in Barroom brawls with sailors, gunfights in the streets of New York, a Nordic goddess (the title character Erica) who stops every conversation whenever she walks in a room, the canals of Amsterdam, the ski slopes of Switzerland, a matinee idol so stuck on his own looks and charm that no one can stand him, and maybe a cruise across the Atlantic.
It may not be much of a mystery but it's a great action-oriented adventure story. A very enjoyable read. Highly recommended paperback original.
Displaying 1 of 1 review