Rufus Blake, private investigator is my homage to the Philip Marlowe radio plays of the 1940s and 50s. The stories usually included someone who has gone missing that needs to be found (often a woman). Marlowe being knocked out once or twice each episode. And clients who lie to Marlowe, lies that often lead to trouble. My Rufus Blake works for $50 a day, plus expenses. (That works out to about $600 a day in today’s money.)
xxxIn the words of Rufus Blake, “Take one moonlight cruise that turned deadly, a corpse that wasn’t dead and a pair of blue eyes who should’ve known better and what you get is a family dispute that ends in death.”
xxxLola Montes, a singer at the Cat’s Meow nightclub, hires Blake to find her missing sister, Gillian. But it seems that two local mobsters and an ex-con are looking for her too. And they are also looking for something else. A stash of diamonds that Blake’s old high school buddy, along with one of the mobsters and the ex-con stole while in Japan at the end of the war.
xxxThe trail that eventually leads to Gillian doesn’t make her out to be missing. Because Blake discovers Lola and Gillian in a bungalow near the Venice beach. And when the diamonds are finally discovered, Blake counts four bodies who never get to cash in on the jewels. Dead bodies, including Lola’s. And as it often happens in the Marlowe episodes, by the time the dust settles, Blake never gets his fifty a day.