Scott Elliott

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Created by Terence Faherty
(1954 –)

Another of the growing breed of retro eyes (see Toby Peters,  Jack Levine, Brian Kane, Nate Heller, etc.), the adventures of Tinseltown gumshoes SCOTT ELLIOTT take him from Hollywood’s so-called “Golden Age” of the 1940s right up to the late sixties.

A former bit-player (a nice word for failed actor) before the war (WWII, that is), Scott now works for the slightly sleazy Hollywood Security Agency, where he tries to keep the nasty little secrets of movie star clients out of the scandal rags. In his impressive debut, 1996’s Kill Me Again, Scott tangles with the House on Un-American Activities Committee when a screenwriter is accused of being a Communist. And then the writer is found murdered. With its finely-detailed settings and attention to period detail this series should appeal to movie buffs and private eye fans alike.

Hollywood trivia? You’re soaking in it.

And perhaps the ultimate wink-wink is the 2011 short story “Sleep Big,” which serves both as a kind of prequel to the series, and as a possible answer to the burning question first posed by Howard Hawks to Raymond Chandler when he was adapting The Big Sleep.

Namely, “Who killed the chauffeur?”

Faherty is also the creator of ruminative failed seminarian turned private eye Owen Keane.

NOVELS

SHORT STORIES

  • “The Authentic Rose” (September/October 2000, EQMM)
  • “Nobody’s Ring” (2000, The Shamus Game)
  • “The Second Coming” (November 2002, EQMM)
  • “Garbo’s Knee” (January 2007, EQMM)
  • “Closing Credits” (2007, Hollywood & Crime)
  • “Unruly Jade” (May 2009, EQMM)
  • “Sleep Big” (2011, The Hollywood Op)
  • “A Bullet From Yesterday” (January 2011, EQMM)

COLLECTIONS

  • The Hollywood Op (2011) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
    Collects eight stories featuring Scott Elliott (revised in 2017).
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

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