cover image Tommy Gun Tango

Tommy Gun Tango

Bruce Cook, Brant Randall, . . Capital Crime, $14.95 (288pp) ISBN 978-0-9799960-3-0

This tease of a mystery by Cook, who pretends that “Bruce Randall” is not the pseudonym he used for 2008’s Blood Harvest , will frustrate more readers than it will satisfy. After an opening reference to the mysterious death of Paul Bern, Hollywood actress Jean Harlow’s husband, in 1932, hundreds of pages go by before Bern actually dies. Those expecting a James Ellroy–like reimagining of a real-life unsolved crime involving the famous will find themselves growing increasingly impatient as Cook relates the less than fascinating exploits of Pete Lawe, an ex-marshal from Massachusetts, headed west; his shady travel companion, Al Haine; his love interest, Gladys Alwyn, who preceded him to L.A.; and Gayle Barton-Poole, a would-be film star who strikingly resembles Harlow. Their first-person accounts at times cover the same ground to no particular advantage. (Oct.)