The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles (Hickey Family Mystery #1)

The Biggest Liar In Los Angeles Tells A Gripping Story About Memorable Characters And Resurrects A Time And Place That, Perhaps More Than Any, Created The Modern World. “kuhlken Mixes Historical And Fictional Characters With An Ease That Will Remind Many Of Max Allan Collins’s Nate Heller Series (true Crime, Etc.). He’s Equally Adept At Melding The Murder Inquiry With Hickey’s Personal Struggles.”​ ~ Publishers’ Weekly​ Throughout 1926, Harry Chandler Used The Persuasive Reach Of His Los Angeles Times To Assure That Railroads Were Out, And Cars Were In. And In May Of That Vital Year, Celebrity Evangelist Aimee Semple Mcpherson Went Swimming At Ocean Park Beach And Vanished, Presumed Drowned. Millions Mourned Or Prayed For Her Miraculous Return. On June 23, She Walked Out Of The Mexican Desert And Crossed The Border Into Douglas, Arizona. Though Her Story Of A Kidnapping Convinced Her Followers, The District Attorney Didn’t Buy It. A Grand Jury Hearing Was Underway When A Lynching Happened In Echo Park, Only Yards From Sister Aimee’s Angelus Temple. The Victim Was An Old Friend Of Tom Hickey, Whose Distress Is Aggravated Because The Police And Popular Media Have Apparently Conspired To Deny The Lynching Occurred. Tom, Who Leads A Dance Orchestra And Works Days Selling Meat, Adds To His Jobs The Pursuit Of Killers Who May Belong To The Ku Klux Klan. The Investigation Leads Him To Angelus Temple And Sister Aimee, Whose Sermon Entitled “the Biggest Liar In Los Angeles” Provides Him With Clues And Suspects. They Include Publishing Mogul William Randolph Hearst And Harry Chandler, Owner Of The Los Angeles Times.1 In 1926, when musician Tom Hickey reads in a broadside about a lynching the Los Angeles newspapers failed to report, and discovers the Negro victim was an old friend, he goes to his neighbor Leo Weiss, an LAPD detective. Leo confirms that, officially, the lynching didn't occur. Tom has a dance orchestra to lead and a wild younger sister to raise. Yet he decides to investigate the murder. Since the lynching occurred in Echo Park, across the street from evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson's Angelus Temple, he goes there looking for clues and is greeted and watched by an usher who follows him after the service and continues to shadow him daily. The investigation earns Tom beatings, gunfire meant to dissuade him, and warnings from Leo, a speakeasy owner, and a Klansman, that he's made formidable enemies. Among them may be infamous Police Chief Two Gun Davis, Examiner publisher and political heavyweight William Randolph Hearst, and Harry Chandler, owner of the Times, who owns more land than any man in the world. After Sister Aimee announces that on November 2, election day, she will preach a sermon entitled 'The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles,' Tom deduces that the cover up may involve local politics, perhaps a ballot referendum that will decide who the city's future belongs to: the railroads, whose plans include subways and elevated trains; or the oil, automobile, and suburban development interests, devoted to building highways. Meanwhile, Tom also discovers that the key to the murder, as is too often the case, lies close to home.