Steven Philip Deeble

Persistence of Vision Steven Philip Deeble

Memorial Day, 1929. Detective Daniel Moretti has reached the end of the road. His past is catching up with him as he investigates the case of his career. A private investigator is found dead at the Palm Springs home of a Hollywood starlet. In the icebox - a reel of movie film. Moretti's investigation takes him from the desert to the sea, from the hotels and the heat of Palm Springs and the Mojave Desert, to the cool ocean breezes of Culver City, Hollywood, Bel Air, and Long Beach. Along the way he crosses paths with the Hollywood elite - Chaplin, Barrymore, Stan Laurel, Lon Chaney. And then there's the starlet in whose home the PI died. Moretti has met her before, and she starts the skeletons in his closet rattling. He barely made it to California after their encounter. Now could she be trying to kill him to cover it up and protect her fledgling career? Is Moretti one step behind the killer, or ahead? People around him keep showing up dead, and the local cops are as crooked as the branches of a Joshua Tree. Moretti has precious few friends he can trust, although another woman from his past gives him hope. People struggle to get to L. A. thinking it's like the movies. Hollywood was a real estate deal, but people come from all over the world to make their fortunes. Some succeed. Most end up waiting tables or driving trucks. L. A. isn't the dream... it's the waking up. 'Persistence of Vision' is a taut noir thriller in the manner of Hammett, Chandler and Ellroy. Its characters and locales are vividly drawn, and colorfully portray a time of great style and elegance.