Herbert Kastle

The story of a great producer's rise to power, of the enemies he makes and the friends he buys, and of the secret lives lived behind the headlines.

This is a novel of the city -- of the men and women who live in it, love in it, hate in it, sin in it, and die in it. Like most of us, the men and women who lived side by side at Koptic Court knew little of one another. Sometimes they knew a name or recognized a face as they passed one another on the stairs in the halls, but that was all. They knew nothing of what went on behind each closed and separate door.They did not know that---- in 3-C the nice, respectable businessman despised his wife and secretly lusted after his son's pretty girlfriend...-- in 2-E a young man was desperately struggling against his unnatural desires for another man...-- in 4-B a young wife was being driven to strange violence by her nightmarish memories of a concentration camp...-- in 5-F a bitter and frustrated teen-ager was plotting vengeance against them all

When I saw the crumpled sheet of paper with the list of names in Warren's handwriting, I knew my old buddy had really cracked. Now he had gone into hiding -- and with him his favorite war souvenir, a deadly ten-shot automatic.Somewhere in the city Warren was hiding -- watching -- and waiting.But for me there was no waiting. I knew I had to get to everybody on that list -- and fast.

First came the weapon -- the perfect assassin's tool, with a silencer and ten bullets. Then came the killer -- a loner, Frank Berdon never knew his own range ... until he found the gun. Next came the victims -- the flotsam and jetsam of L.A.'s Sunset Strip. Among them, a streetgirl named Carla. Now the avenger -- Diana Woodruff, her sister. More beautiful, more dangerously alluring than any of the others, she set herself up as "Silencer's" final target. Not even the law could stop her rush to vengeance. Least of all the police lieutenant who loved her

When the Nazis declare war on California's Jews, film producer David Howarth declares ware on them. And while he's tracking down crazy Adolph Schleisser and his gang, a quiet, retiring psychopath by the name of Rita Goren is on his trail. Not to mention the mafia and the police... David's War is under way