SHANGHAI RUBY’S

1948 Los Angeles. The House Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C. is investigating members of the Communist party and their activities taking root throughout the United States.

Matthew Thornton P.I. is hired by a friend of Humphrey Bogart to recover jewels given to a mobster’s mistress and Ernest Hemingway threatened while overseeing the filming of his latest movie.

Thornton uncovers a connection to several murdered women and a communist plot to overthrow the Hollywood film industry with funds generated from a counterfeit currency scheme, laundering the money through Chinatown’s illegal gambling, dope and prostitution activities.

The conspirators:  Black Jade, a top level female communist from China and now owner of a waterfront nightclub, Shanghai Ruby’s, Carson McCullen, a manufacturing executive with a secret past and unwitting celebrity connections and the Communist “Gang of Eight” the writers, producers and directors at Majestic Movie Studios.

Thornton’s assisted by a Rhonda Fleming look-a-like moonlighting at the Florentine Gardens burlesque club, an aging actor with a closet full of secrets and a federal vendetta, a gutter-story newspaper reporter, a black jazz musician with a penchant for lost blondes and a homicide police detective, risking his retirement plans.

From Los Angeles to Catalina Island, Thornton and his partners descend into the steamy world of sex, violence, kidnapping, car bombings and murder. Frequenting tattoo parlors, brothels, jazz joints, strip clubs, seedy hotels and rundown apartments, blazing waterfront warehouses and back alley slums, they connect the pieces and dispense justice…the hard way.

. . .

“Thompson has the ability to describe Shanghai Ruby’s characters, set during the 1940s Hollywood’s Golden Age, from amorous to menacing, with equal entertainment for the reader. You can almost smell the Lucky Strike cigarette smoke wafting across the room, taste a cold brew at Shanghai Ruby’s bar and admire the beautiful femme fatale’s sprinkled throughout. It’s filled with action, suspense and mystery. Great read.” 

~ Larry Morphew, author of Country Folk

“David R. Thompson has once again proven that he’s the king when it comes to spinning a hard-boiled detective yarn. His prose oozes with language that harkens back to the best of Hammett or Chandler. It’s 1948, and P.I. Matthew Thornton is doing what he does best—solving crimes. In this latest novel Shanghai Ruby’s, Thornton has his arms full, taking on a communist organization whose plans is to destroy the Hollywood film industry. He meets shady characters along the way who don’t make his job easy—but Thornton is tough. Neither femme fatale, thugs, or mobsters will deter him from solving the case. A ‘don’t miss reading, or you’ll be sorry’ detective novel. Thoroughly entertaining. A real page-turner. I highly recommend it.” 

~ Tony Piazza, author of A Murder Amongst Angels, The Curse of the Crimson Dragon,

Murder is Such Sweet Revenge, and Murder in the Cards

“Shanghai Ruby’s treats us to a wild ride that takes us back in time to the late 1940s. From Los Angeles to Catalina Island, we find ourselves in the steamy world of sex, violence, kidnapping, car bombings and murder. Thompson captures in stunning detail what it must have been like to live in the days of The House Unamerican Activities Committee and how characters from Humphrey Bogart to Ernest Hemingway all play a role. So, pour yourself a glass of wine and sit down to an adventure filled with lively characters and a plot with more twist and turns than a rollercoaster.” 

~ Frank Grady, author of Mermaid Jewels