The Girl from Outer Space by Carter Brown

The “saviour of blackmailed film starlets” (as one wag put it) appeared in over thirty books, and he wasn’t even necessarily Carter Brown’s most popular creation - that’s probably Los Angeles county deputy Al Wheeler, Big Apple gumshoe Danny Boyd, or maybe even clothing-challenged private eye Mavis Seiditz. The series as a whole takes a satisfyingly traditional approach to storytelling, and the pedal-to-the-metal plotting more than makes up for the author’s penchant for glossing over assorted plot holes. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Rick, for his part, doesn’t differ too drastically from the average private eye paperback from the 1960s and 70s, although at times the books do at times suggest a slightly earlier era, recalling more fifties-centric eyes like Shell Scott and Honey West in their smirky sexuality, and the slap dash plots and frenetic pacing recall nothing so much as the detective pulps of the forties. Maybe, just maybe, Rick can put it right… Someone got their head caved in, someone has a photo they weren’t supposed to, or someone or something went missing. in other words, people with more money and fame than common sense. Sex and drugs are often involved, and blackmail, extortion and large sums of money are frequently the result.Įventually they come knocking on Rick’s door. Which is why Rick thinks of himself as an “industrial consultant.” Most of the time his clients are Hollywood bigshots of some kind or another: producers, actors, directors, etc.

Usually he doesn’t have to look very hard - trouble always seems to find him. Even on his worst day, there’s usually someone out there in the movie biz in need of Rick’s services. RICK LARRY HOLMAN was a private eye working in Hollywood in a series of novels written by prolific Australian author Carter Brown back in the sixties and seventies, and boy, does it show! Rick knows everything there is to know about the glitz and glamor of Tinseltown in that era, and the stuff in the shadows that nobody wants to admit to.Īnd so cool cat Rick prowls the streets of Hollywood, keeping an eye out for any cases that may come his way. Pseudonym of Alan Geoffrey Yates other pseudonyms include Peter Carter Brown, Peter Carter-Brown, Raymond Glenning, Sinclair MacKellar, Dennis Sinclair and Paul Valdez

The Girl from Outer Space by Carter Brown