Book - Case of the Vanishing Beauty

by Rob Smith, Jr. on May.08, 2008, under Books

It’s been years since I read a Shell Scott mystery. This is an early story by Richard Prather and, I would believe, an early story about California religious cults. Many literary detectives have chased around these independent groups following a materialistically distorted view of Eastern myhos, what we now call ‘New Age’. One of the best selling being John D. MacDonald’s ‘Green Ripper’. 1950 was early for a story like this and, unfortunately for me, I’ve read a lot of the earlier stories and saw the ending of this before it happened. Still a well written story and, as always, the good guy wins. Though a bit roughed up for it in the end.