The Prostitutes' Ball

Shane Scully #10

by Stephen J. Cannell

Detective Shane Scully responds to a call in the Hollywood hills at a once-immaculate mansion, the scene of an infamous murder twenty-five years prior. He discovers the remnants of a lavish pool party. The revelers have fled, leaving three dead bodies in their wake, all shot with the same gun. One is an acclaimed film producer. The other two, a pair of gorgeous women.

With his new partner, Sumner “Hitch†Hitchens, Scully begins to investigate what looks to be an open-and-shut case: The women were hired prostitutes, and there’s security video of an angry husband firing on all three. A simple case of brutal revenge. But nothing is ever as simple as it seems: There’s a single spent bullet casing that doesn’t match the rest.

 

From that single bullet emerges a story of love, murder, suicide, and one of the biggest financial frauds in L.A. history. Someone has gone to great lengths to cover up a decades-old crime, and as Scully and Hitch get closer to the answer, they find themselves in a killer’s crosshairs.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Thriller, Audiobook, Detective, Mystery Thriller, Crime

306 pages, Hardcover

First published October 12, 2010

About the author

Stephen J. Cannell was an American television producer, writer, novelist, and occasional actor, and the founder of Cannell Entertainment (formerly Stephen J. Cannell Productions) and the Cannell Studios.

Cannell created or co-created several successful TV series from the 1970s to the 1990s. Creations included The Rockford Files, The A-Team, The Greatest American Hero, 21 Jump Street, and The Commish. He was an Emmy winner and was awarded The Eye - Lifetime Achievement Award by the Private Eye Writers of America.

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This writer has yet to disappoint me with the few I’ve sampled from this detective series set in Los Angeles featuring Shane Scully. Cannell has the knack of tight and entertaining story telling. His decades of script writing for TV make “cinematic” a natural quality for him. But in this one goes over the top on that score. Scully’s new partner, Hitch, has already made a lot of money selling the details on a past case to a film producers, and their new case has him obsessed with similar prospects. A famous director and two super high-price call girls are found machine gunned to death at a luxury setting in the Hollywood Hills. Lots of digging into the sordid lifestyles of the rich and famous. But this is no dark Ellroy story. All the twists and turns to the tale just add to Hitch’s concept of a script. Scully’s hatred of Hitch and his focus on money begins to ease as it turns out his connections really help with progress on the case. Great dialog, pacing, and colorful characters added to a fun ride from start to finish. So sad for me that this was Cannell’s last before dying in 2010.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the way to write an exciting novel around police work. Excellent characters, plots and with bits of humor. 10 of 10 stars

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very sad reading this book as Cannell just passed away. What an amazing talent he was and he will be missed.

This was a very different Shane Scully story than what I'm used to. More light-hearted and funny. I really liked it.

Scully catches a triple homicide case involving a high profile Hollywood dude and some high class escorts a la Heidi Fleiss' ladies. He also gets a new partner, Sumner Hitchens, whom he reluctantly accepts. The new guy is Mr. Hollywood and already made a fortune from selling the rights to a previous case for a movie that ultimately starred Jamie Foxx.

What appears to be a quickly solved case turns into an investigation of an old case with lots of intrigue and highly placed players involved. Hitch seems more intent on making it his next movie deal while Scully is committed to solving the case.

Cannell did a nice job on jabbing at the movie and TV industry and life in the LA fast lane while creating a good mystery. The chemistry between Scully and Hitch was fun, too.

I've heard there's one more book in the pipeline - I hope it's with these two characters working together.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Library Loan
Interesting change from my usual reading. I borrowed another from the Scully series but I think I will return it to library. A whole lot of fancy cars, following the Hollywood types and the organized crime types (Colombian drug money) and Scully getting to adjust to his new partner who has made money selling his experiences to Hollywood and encouraging Scully to hop on board.

[Harlan Wolff · Rating 5 out of 5]

A master of the craft. If you write or like detective/thriller/crime fiction then this is what it looks like when it's done well. The author was one of the most experienced writers in Hollywood, and he penned one of the best from my childhood - The Rockford Files. This is him, later in life, basically just showing off. But, when you have his talent and experience, you can get away with it. He even tells us what he's doing (plotwise) as he's doing it. It will grip you, hold your attention, and take you on a ride through the author's world.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book! Funny thing as I am progressing my way thru the book...I kept thinking who came first-Starsky and Hutch or Scully and Hitch??? :)

[Giovanni Gelati · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think most of us can envision many different things when we see a title such as this. This is a Shane Scully novel, and I am of the mind that it is one of the best, if not the best one of the series. Yes, I have read them all. Maybe my memory of past novels is a bit clouded, but the narrative on this one is so incredible that I haven’t had this much fun with an installment of the character in a long time. Cannell puts us square into his world and takes us through a ride of not just L.A. Homicide’s finest but also the world of movies where Cannel has dominated for so long. What an incredible marriage of plotlines and perhaps a glimpse into the ups, downs and foibles of an industry that Cannell was both a pioneer and mover and shaker.
He had it going right from the prologue; I knew this was going to be an amazing piece of work. From the man that knew how to entertain us, this is taken right from the prologue, “This is a story about a story. It’s also a story which, despite all my efforts to the contrary, seemed destined to become a major motion picture.
It began a few days before Christmas, but it’s not a Christmas story. It’s about lost generations and emotional desertion and about a Los Angeles family with way too much money. So I guess at its heart, it’s a story about greed, corruption, and loss.
With those themes, what better place to start than at the office Christmas party? But before we begin, just a preliminary remark.
I’m a homicide detective, and as such, I’m carefully schooled in the three concepts mentioned above. I work at an elite LAPD detective division known as Homicide Special. Our unit was reconstituted after the O.J. Simpson case, another L.A. story of greed, corruption, and loss.
After losing that high-profile media trail, it occurred to our command floor managers that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to have homicide detectives carrying blood evidence vials around a crime scene where they could later be accused of planting it.
As a result, Homicide Special was completely reorganized and staffed with our most seasoned detectives. I’m lucky to be assigned there. It’s a great gig.
My name is Shane Scully, and for this story I will be your host narrator. It’s going to be a fast ride through L.A. with a lot of reckless driving. Look out for abrupt lane changes, freeway shootings, and dangerous hairpin turns. As police officer, I’m required to advise you to fasten your seat belts.
All set? Then let’s go….Cue the opening theme music. Fade slowly up from black, and we’ll begin at:”
I think that you can tell by the length thus far of the post I don’t want this to end. I have enjoyed Cannell’s writing for quite a while and was shocked as were many by his passing. There is no way I am going to be able to describe the feelings I had for his work; they are too deep. He gave me a sense of enjoyment over so many years, on television, movies and his novels. I was sad when I heard of his passing and then pumped once I read the prologue. I was holding in my hand the possible last work of a master entertainer and the novel was the most fun I had reading one of his works. The narrative angle was perfect and it seemed fitting we as readers are getting a glimpse into the world in which he inhabited for so long. His opinions, his knowledge of the ins and outs of the industry he dominated for so long, just pure fun.
The Prostitutes’ Ball is a great Shane Scully installment, whether you are a fan or not. One doesn’t have to have been a big fan such as myself to enjoy the novel. If it is your first read of this character it is an excellent bridge to the others, cross over it and enjoy the ride. One final thought, Cannell decided to simply finish the novel this way:’ So that’s it. Cue the end music. Roll the production logos. Bring up the final card and we’re at:” These are probably the last words I will get to read that he wrote, very appropriate.
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[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great LAST novel in the Shane Scully series, full of twists and told from a very different angle. Cannell will surely be missed! RIP

[DAISY READS HORROR · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was somewhat a fast read. It was steady but not packed with much suspense or drama. This read was just ok for me, which honestly was disappointing because I had been wanting to read this book for years now.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detectives investigate the murders of three people, two of them high-class prostitutes, partying in the Hollywood Hills. During the investigation, they stumble on the more-than-25-year-old murders of a family at the same location. Two shrewd and clever detectives are determined to solve the murders, especially after finding a stolen Brinks armored truck. It's an up-and-down, round and round look at the mystery, and how the detectives plan to make a movie of the unusual series of crimes that appear to be connected. This is a good one that is fast moving with interesting characters.

[Jim Wessely]

My first Cannell Book and I think it is about the murder of a playwright and his hooker friends.

[Crystal Karre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another author that draws me in like I amthere

[Christine Schmidt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just the sort of good ol' police procedural I like to break up my other reading. Complex enough, good characters, interesting ending.

[Suzanne Sowersby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read.

[Jill · Rating 3 out of 5]

***SPOILER ALERT!***

Elements of this story were taken from/based on the Perelson murder-suicide in Los Angeles (December 1959). Some of the details were identical!

[D. George · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Scully books are just plain consistently good. I loathe the fact that I only have one left to read.

[Micheal Jimerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

To me Cannell has a little fun with the mystery genre formula all while proving his mastery of it.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of the better books in a good series

[Nolan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series just gets better with every book—maybe with every page. It’s Christmastime as the book opens, and a major Christmas party is in full swing in the backyard of an abandoned house. Shane Scully and his newly promoted wife, Alexa, are driving home from a different party when they get the word on the scanner that a house near them is in full party mode and that people are dying. In attendance are some of Hollywood’s most glitzy including two high-priced escort service women. Before you turn many pages, these women will be gunned down in the swimming pool.

It looks like a nice open-and-shut case. The disgruntled almost-ex-husband of one of the women has brought his semiautomatic to the party, and he has used it to kill the women and do some serious damage in other ways. But he and his gun are quickly apprehended.

But the prosecutor wants a super-thorough job done in terms of searching the crime scene for stray bullets and led casings. That’s when they find the bullet whose caliber is nowhere near that of the gun used to kill the women. It’s an abandoned house, so there could be any number of reasons for that stray bullet to be in that yard. But the somewhat nonconformist Shane Sculley is bothered by the presence of that bullet. What does it mean? How long has it been there?

Scully and his movie-producer-wannabe partner are in for some serious surprises as the connection is made to a three-decade-old cold case.

Like every other book in this series, the dialogue is snappy and memorable. Cannell, with lots of television and movie screen plays to his credit, has written this in such a way that it would easily become an excellent movie. There’s a good bit of violence in this book and more than a little profanity, so if those things are a concern, either learn to be nimble with the skip controls in your book player or perhaps pass on the book. You absolutely won’t see the plot coming; no way will you predict it. But seriously consider starting with the beginning of this series. Coming from me, that’s a bit of a switch, since I don’t play by those rules most of the time. It isn’t absolutely necessary, but it may be helpful to read this in order. But if reading an entire series seems overwhelming, at least please give this a try if you like fast-action police stories.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shane, a long time LA police detective is called to a late night seen of murder. The murder involved a Hollywood big shot and two high price call girls. Shane is paired with detective Hitchens for the case who is on his last chance in the department. Nobody wants to work with him, and neither does Shane. The murders took place at a pool party and the detectives are not allowed a warrant to search the house. Hitch's background is that he has turned his police work into a best selling movie starting Jamie Foxx as him. This case is one that he is already writing about.

There are several plot twists that end with the pair solving more that one murder.

[Susan Dennis · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the perfect example of a great read that is not even a very good book. It is a really simply an artfully patchwork of cliches. Stephen J. Cannell knew how to write a book that is a butter read - slick and caloric. I am still pissed at him for dying. Detective Shane Scully has a new partner who's a black guy interested in turning his police stories into movies. They stumble over a relatively minor case which - in the best cliche possible - uncovers a 30 year old closed case that needs reopening. Even with the long list of things that make a book not worthy, I enjoyed it to the end.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stephen J. Cannell Best description of an a*hole FBI task force leader I’ve ever read! Laughed out loud here and in several other places hooted! So well written!! Familiar plot of get-it-solved, slightly rogue detective. Shane Scully having it all over the bureaucratic and inflated-ego suits. The standout in a string of look-alike serial killings stands out to Scully and the detecting is first-rate. The emotional side, taking care of an alcoholic partner on the rails, a partner who saved Scully’s life in the past, and the family dynamics are really well woven in. More Cannell, please!!

[Macjest · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a Shane Scully book in quite some time. This outing reminded what a great writer Stephen Cannell could be. It had a little bit of everything. Police procedural, Hollywood, drama, and humor. I deducted a star because I still don't care for the reader. There were several moments where I burst out laughing while listening or dropped my jaw when something caught me by surprise. The ending was just right.

[Doreen Longo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got this book because I really like the author. He is known for 21 jumpstreet and other television series. However, I didn't like this book. There were too many plot twists. The premise was good but I just didn't like it as much as I thought I would. I don't know if I will read another book by this author.

[John Loy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best way I can describe my reading of The Prostitutes Ball would be this You come hone from a long night out with friends you are not quite ready for bed. You throw on the television, and you can't find the remote so you start paying attention to the crime thriller on ABC at 2 in the morning. That is prostitutes ball! Entertaining read but Not Cannel's best work.

[Megan Bowles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m usually not into this genre of book but decided to take a chance. I was hooked. The writing style was fantastic for this type of murder mystery/detective work novel. I clung to the story waiting to hear the outcomes like it was a story on the news I’d heard about. Should I ever venture back over to this style/genre I would definitely seek out another Cannell novel.

[Mary Cassidy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book, but felt that the character of “Hitch” was a little too over the top for me, so I kept getting irritated with the writing. Sort of a three and a half, but feel for the sake of the better books, I have to make it a three star.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This author really fleshes out the characters to the point that I started to think about casting for the movie! Probably because one of the primary detectives involved was a bit obsessed with his side gig producing movies but it made for a fun read.

[Lois Carkhuff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope there’s a sequel!

This is the first Shane Scully book I’ve read and quite glad I did. The twist and turns of the story were amazing but what I really enjoyed was the relationship with Hitch. Frustrating, funny and fascinating, but never boring!

[Celeste Arms]

quick read like a made for tv movie