Red Sky Lament (A John Ray Horn Thriller) [Paperback]

Edward Wright (Author)

Book Description

Series: A John Ray Horn Thriller | Publication Date: April 1, 2007

   (Winner of the Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award)

   Los Angeles, late 1940s: As brush fires begin to eat at the dry grass in the hills rimming the San Fernando Valley, a more ominous threat is taking shape. All over Hollywood, the U.S. government is ordering people to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee as part of the crusade to uncover Communist influence in the movies.

   John Ray Horn has little use for politics, but he knows a few things about outsiders. And when his ex-lover Maggie O'Dare asks him to come to the aid of an old friend of hers who has been targeted by the committee, he can't refuse. Owen Bruder, a brilliantly talented but notoriously difficult screenwriter, is accused of having belonged to the Communist Party -- a charge he strongly denies. 

   If Horn can discover Bruder's secret accuser, they might have a chance to clear his name. But no one is willing to talk. People are scared -- perhaps more frightened than they were in the Depression, or even the war. Hollywood has become a place run by fear and suspicion, where a whisper is all it takes to smear an innocent man.

   As Horn's search leads him to powerful figures in Hollywood, the media, and his own government, his investigation takes a sudden and deadly turn. He is forced to ask if those in authority are capable of murder in order to attain their political goals. And he finds that more people will die before all the secrets are laid bare.

   Now there's no mistaking the smell of fire in the air. It is just over the mountains, still unseen, but it's coming this way...

 

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The third John Ray Horn adventure finds the former B-movie cowboy star once again helping out a friend: Maggie O'Dare, another former western player, has asked Horn, who now collects debts for his onetime costar turned casino owner, to find out who told the House Un-American Activities Committee that a well-known Hollywood screenwriter was once a Communist. Horn, who has no use for politics but knows plenty about being blacklisted (his movie career ended after he slugged a producer), quickly runs afoul of FBI agents, the committee's lead investigator, and a legendary Hollywood gossip columnist. As in Clea's Moon (2003) and While I Disappear (2004), Wright drenches the action in late-forties, noir-tinged Hollywood ambience, this time mixing in plenty of details about HUAC's campaign to out Tinseltown leftists. Unfortunately, the labyrinthine plot loses itself in Chandlerian cul-de-sacs, forcing Wright to spend too much time trying to tie up loose ends. Still, the juxtaposition of Horn's character against the historical setting--Roy Rogers wandering about in a Robert Mitchum movie--makes this series a must for noir fans with a sense of irony. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

His best and most important political and social statement. . . The kind of art that stirs up old memories and pierces the soul.
--Dick Adler, CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Wright is a superb storyteller, with a phenomenal ability to reconstruct Hollywood in the 1940s.

--Margaret Cannon, TORONTO GLOBE & MAIL

His best book. . . Wright creates an atmosphere of fear and distrust with a mystery that deftly brings together all the elements of his story -- love, hate, ambition and the fight for America's soul.

--SUNDAY TELEGRAPH of London

Dark, gripping. . . One of the joys of Wright's novels is the way he recreates the glamour and fragility of Hollywood in the post-war years.

--SUNDAY TIMES of London

'one of "the best American crime novels of the year" ' -- Jake Kerridge THE TELEGRAPH REVIEW "It's a difficult task to set books in the classic hardboiled era, but Wright handles the period brilliantly. Highly recommended." -- Michael Carson CRIME TIME 'Edward Wright is one of the shining new faces on the mystery scene...Red Sky Lament is a fine read.' THE SHERBROOKE RECORD

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Orion Publishing (April 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0752878190
• ISBN-13: 978-0752878195
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #330,971 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Edward Wright grew up in Arkansas and went to school in Tennessee and Illinois. He has been an officer in the U.S. Navy and an editor at the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times. His noir-flavored mysteries featuring John Ray Horn -- "Clea's Moon," "While I Disappear" (U.K. title: "The Silver Face"), and "Red Sky Lament" -- set in Los Angeles during the 1940s, have won the Shamus Award in the U.S. and the Debut Dagger and Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award in the U.K. His first non-series book, "Damnation Falls," a contemporary mystery-thriller set in small-town Tennessee, won the Barry Award. His latest novel, "From Blood," was named one of the best mysteries of the year by the Financial Times of London, and a U.S. edition is due in 2012. Although now a Californian, he retains a Southerner's love of barbecue and bluegrass music. He and his wife, Cathy, live in the Los Angeles area. www.edwardwrightbooks.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Reviewed by Wendy Runyon, January 25, 2007

By 

Front Street Reviews www.frontstreetreviews.com - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Sky Lament (A John Ray Horn Thriller) (Hardcover)

Red is often a color associated with anger, passion, and represents fire as well as, at one time, communism. A lament is a cry of sorrow or grief. Red Sky Lament is a fitting title for a novel wrought with all of those characteristics.

During the late 1940's and into the 1950's, J. Parnell Thomas, chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee opened an investigation into the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry, searching out people who were associated with the Communist Party or showed signs of communist sympathies. Hearings were held condemning Hollywood personalities, ruining their lives and careers with little regard for truth and justice. It was a witch-hunt of sorts, and unless a person subscribed to the popular beliefs at the time, that person could easily be labeled as a communist sympathizer and an outcast.

It is in this environment, with the looming danger of a brush fire that could change course with a shift in the winds and the unsettling threat of the upcoming hearings, that Edward Wright's novel is set. When screenwriter Owen Bruder is accused of being a communist, Maggie O'Dare turns to her old lover, the former cowboy actor and ex-felon John Ray Horn. Despite his misgivings and doubts about the screenwriter, John Ray agrees to take on the case to uncover the identity of the person who lied about Owen Bruder's communist affiliation. As betrayal gives way to murder and the lives of his friends are threatened, John Ray's determination to get to the truth only grows stronger.

There could not be a more perfect main character for a novel like this. John Ray Horn is a man of his time, loyal, a cowboy who will stand up to his convictions and for those he loves, and a man of decent character. He isn't without his flaws, however. His temper and jealously sometimes get in his way. His lack of interest in politics allows a glimpse into just how uncertain things were during that time period, with the strong sense of patriotism but also a sense of fairness, which seemed to get lost in the fear of communism, however real or imagined.

Edward Wright has taken a piece of American history and made it his own in Red Sky Lament. The novel is well researched and captures the heart of the controversy, including the patriotism, the bigotry and the fear of the era. He adeptly weaves fact with fiction, bringing the story to life. The reader is transported to Los Angeles of the 1940's from the very first pages and the characters were well drawn. Red Sky Lament is a mystery novel worth reading whether you are new to the series or a continuing fan.

4.0 out of 5 stars The 1950's Commie Hunt Brought to Life, December 21, 2006

By 

Armchair Interviews (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Red Sky Lament (A John Ray Horn Thriller) (Hardcover)

Trust me, this was a very interesting story.

Set in the 1940-50's America, Red Sky Lament takes place in Hollywood, the hotbed of the "Red" scare, where people were "naming names" about fellow workers in the entertainment industry.

Senator "Parnell" is the book's truth seeker--aided by overzealous helpers and people who advanced or protected themselves by giving up others.

Politics and murder cross paths, way too often. All the while a California-style fire is in the hills...heading this way--just like the threat of communism--thus the Red Sky Lament.

John Ray Horn is a former cowboy star (now unemployed because has been in prison); his movie sidekick and friend is Mad Crow; and friend Maggie O'Dare is queen of the serials (short movie reels before the main movie).

Laura Lee Paisley is the radio gossip star who drops names on her show that can make or breaks career. These days she's dropping names of people suspected of being Communists or at least sympathizers.

Maggie asks Horn to investigate why her father, Owen Bruder, was murdered. Did it have anything to do with the fact that his name was just announced on Paisley's radio show?

While investigating Bruder's murder, John Ray Horn knew..."somebody wanted him dead and had the means to do it." That about says it all. Horn also, "repeated the name as if it were a piece of food he was trying to dislodge from his teeth."

Who killed Owen, and was it political, or something else? The who and the why are the essence of the book.

This is a real "noir" book, set among that era of blacklists, and long-gone names of Roy Rogers and Gene Autry and other movie trivia are sprinkled among the characters, and even song writer, man of the people, Woody Guthrie appears to sing and comment on the situation.

Not only did the writer give us a good story, he had a lot of very good lines. Being published in England, the American reader has to overlook the different use of punctuation.

Armchair Interviews says: You can feel the fear that maybe "today's the day my name" will be given.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent novel, December 21, 2006

By 

Keith Nichols (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Red Sky Lament (A John Ray Horn Thriller) (Hardcover)

This engrossing novel expertly recreates the time and place in which its characters battle for their integrity against the commie-hunters of J. Parnell Thomas' nefarious committee. Along with this atmospheric treat, we get a well-realized murder mystery that has its own interest. It's hard to imagine that the U.S. was once so paranoid about communism as to fall for the machinations of red-baiters like Thomas and Joe McCarthy. But then a look at current religious conflicts suggests that times haven't changed much.