During the summer of 1936, destitute farmers from the Dust Bowl swarm into California, and an old friend brings police detective Tom Hickey a clue to the mystery of his father Charlie's long-ago disappearance. Tom chooses to risk losing his job and family to follow this lead. Tom's quest for answers leads him first to a novelist, then onto the trail of the Sundance Kid and a run-in with a corrupt L.A. cop. Tom becomes a fugitive, wanted for felony assault by the L.A.P.D. What he learns sends Tom up against powerful newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst. He hopes to enlist his mentor Leo Weiss, but instead Leo offers evidence that Tom's father was a criminal. For Tom and his sister, both victims of Charlie's wife, their crazy mother, what now? This is the final chapter in the Hickey saga that ranges across the 1900s. Ken Kuhlken's stories have appeared in Esquire and dozens of other magazines and anthologies, been honorably mentioned in Best American Short Stories, and earned a National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship. www.kenkuhlken.net

Author Biography

Ken Kuhlken's stories have appeared in Esquire and dozens of other magazines and anthologies, been honorably mentioned in Best American Short Stories, and earned National Endowment for the Arts Writing Fellowship. His novels have been chosen as an Ernest Hemingway Best First Fiction Book, a Private Eye Writers of America Best First Novel, and a Shamus Awards Best Novel. The novels are Midheaven and the Tom Hickey California Crime series: (in historical order) The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles, 1926; The Good Know Nothing, 1936; The Venus Deal, 1942; The Loud Adios, 1943; The Angel Gang, 1950; The Do-Re-Mi, 1971; and The Vagabond Virgins, 1979.