Angel's Gate

The latest rousing tale of sex, sleaze, and salvation in the City of Angels, featuring Dick Henry, the Shortcut Man, by p. g. sturges, whom Michael Connelly calls “a worthy successor to Chandler”

In Angel’s Gate, Dick Henry is drawn into a case involving an aging but still amorous Los Angeles movie mogul named Howard Hogue, who keeps a stable of twenty-plus young starlets available for his highly ritu­alized and private attentions. . . .

Henry is retained by the sister of a young woman who has gone missing and soon he is becoming friendly with Devi Stanton, the “housemother” to the starlets. Despite Devi’s morally questionable responsibilities, she is willing to help (and enjoy the company of ) the Short­cut Man, a relationship that will be crucial to his survival.

After Hogue’s star director batters one of the star­lets in a drug-fueled romp, Henry is drawn into a deeper mystery from years past involving a haunting death on a boat and a missing screenplay written by what appears to be a local homeless man.

As he peels back layer upon layer of sordid Holly­wood history, Dick Henry must contend with crazed drug dealers, Hogue’s personal doctor, crooked cops, private security henchmen, and Hogue himself, who is so powerful and bunkered in his movie-biz mil­lions that he is not intimidated by the ever-resourceful Henry. Amid a final showdown and genius plot twists, the Shortcut Man must outwit his opponents if he is to have any chance to survive.