Reporter Laura Ames and magazine photographer Pete Farrell fly out to rich novelist John Hope Hamilton's private, tropical island to interview him. But as soon as they arrive, they discover that the novelist's secretary Mary Belle has died under mysterious circumstances and that Cuba, his voluptuous new secretary, is doing a lot more for him than taking dictation. The real story here could be murder... and the killing might not be over.
"There are a lot of sexual hijinks of the 1950s Playboy variety, including a couple of pretty funny sex scenes. Duncan's touch is light, and his style is smooth. This one's fun to read." Bill Crider
"Self-deprecating and making humorous hay out of his sexual frustration, Pete is a fun narrator and it’s his voice that makes The Telltale Tart a comic romp." Strange Type
Public relations exec Chris Howard loves money and sex -- and is getting plenty of both. He is having a torrid affair with Jen, the hot and very scheming wife of his new, high-paying client, politician Bart Morley, who is vying for the Governor's mansion. It's a sweet tight-rope walk for Chris that turns unexpectly dangerous when someone threatens to kill him if he doesn't quit the job, which would mean quitting Jen, too. Now he's not walking a tight rope, he's walking on the edge of a razor blade.
It's the early 1960s. Stu Harmon's ex-wife is knifed to death by her lesbian lover...and it nearly destroys him. To understand the tragedy, and what led to it, he delves into the twisted world of love and sex among the beatniks in Malibu and Topanga Canyon.
Greenhill Police chief Buck Peters, the deacon of his local church, investigates the murder the "town tramp." The prime suspect is Kip Belton, the police commissioner, whose alibi is that he was with his wife, Lacey, at the time of the killing. There's just one problem with that story. Buck knows it's a lie...because when the murder happened, the Chief was having sex with Lacey in Belton's backyard. And that's only the beginning of Buck's problems. 
Los Angeles. 1962. The body of Mary Barnes is found in a seedy hotel,... with a bloody X carved into her breast. Is it a signature? Or something else? Laine has been investigating homicides for the L.A. Sheriff's department for years, rolling streets as pallid as a tired prostitute, but this case is different. Why was Mary in a cheap hotel, and where was the baby that she'd recently given birth to? His search for the answer could lead him to a truth that's too dark and unsettling even for him, a hard man who believes he's already seen the worst horrors the city has to hide.
The first of two fast-moving, thrill-packed novels by Jon Messmann, writing as "Alan Joseph," about the man-of-action known simply as Logan, a sea-faring adventurer with a dark, mysterious past...and a hair-trigger temper. He can't be scared. He can't be bought. And he's as turbulent and dangerous as the seven seas.