Book excerpt: PERIL PRESS presents: Dan Turner—Hollywood Detective, January 1942 BULLET FROM NOWHERE by Robert Leslie Bellem The cameras are set, the scene has already been rehearsed; "Shoot!" the director says. . . . What happens is stark tragedy—not of the movie, play-acting variety, but like a chapter out of the deeper drama of life itself. 5000 Words Dan Turner—Hollywood Detective, January 1942 MURDER'S MESSENGER by Robert Leslie Bellem It's a big job for a detective to stop a murder from happening—especially if he gets there too late. But with the cutest quail in Hollywood cooled, her killer had to be found 5400 Words Hollywood Detective, March 1944 ODDS ON THE 8-BALL by Robert Leslie Bellem Trying to trip up a kidnaper, Dan Turner finds himself in the middle of a murder mess. Behind it all looms up the hoodoo cab, license number, 8-BA-11. Accidents, lawsuits, and now a murder! But what can you expect of a cab, handicapped like that, and with a girl driver to boot? 5600 Words Hollywood Detective, January 1947 DEATH'S AUTOGRAPH by Robert Leslie Bellem The fat gentleman evidently had a very special reason for wanting that glamorous cinema queen to affix her signature to a page in his little book—and Dan Turner saw it turn out to be a book of doom, with complications that would have tried the tempers of the Devil! 7000 Words Hollywood Detective, November 1946 TREACHERY PULLS THE TRIGGER by Robert Leslie Bellem illustrated by Newton H Alfred Dan Turner was startled to discover why the monocled publisher-gambler didn't answer the big detective's questions—the guy was dead, although he looked alive! And from there on in the gumshoe trail became rougher and rougher with bruising bumps! 8600 Words Hollywood Detective, January 1947 SLAY IT ISN'T SO! by Robert Leslie Bellem Just why was that glamorous female star, whose rise in the movie firmament had been swift as that of a meteor, taking a runout powder on her career forever? Was it just blackmail? Dan Turner had been hired to find out—and when his employer became suddenly defunct a highly dangerous angle blossomed from the setup. 6600 Words Dan Turner—Hollywood Detective, January, 1942 COOKED by Robert Leslie Bellem An ounce of murder-prevention is worth a pound of chasing a killer. So Dan tries to help the girl—only to find that a very fast one is being pulled on him. 5600 Words Hollywood Detective, November 1946 CARELESS CORPSE by Robert Leslie Bellem That bogus postman brought Dan Turner a splendid solid whack with a blackjack and it was a highly special delivery—thereby involving the ace movietown hawkshaw with low killery and high finance and dangerous bafflement! . . . . 8400 Words This edition includes all 12 illustrations to these eight stories, plus the pulp covers from the magazines that published these eight stories as well as a GALLERY of 11 pulp covers from issues that featured stories by Robert Leslie Bellem (and his pseudonyms.)