A Shoot In Cleveland

#9 in the Milan Jacovich mystery series . . .

Hollywood producer Sidney Friedman has chosen Cleveland as the location for his new hope-to-be-blockbuster film, Street Games. The “shoot” is just getting underway, and the film’s star is the movie industry’s most notorious bad boy, Darren Anderson. Friedman hires Cleveland private investigator Milan Jacovich (it’s pronounced MY-lan YOCK-ovich) to watch over the unruly young actor and keep him out of trouble. Milan, still suffering from the tragic loss of his friend, has no interest in moviemaking but signs on just to keep himself from going crazy brooding.

Keeping Darren Anderson out of trouble is like keeping your hat dry during a downpour. He’s too rich, too famous, too good-looking, and too young to handle it responsibly. When he’s accused of seducing the fifteen-year-old daughter of a local furniture mogul, Milan gets disgusted and quits the job. But murder isn’t far behind—and suddenly Milan is elbow-deep in all sorts of things that have nothing to do with a Saturday afternoon at the movies.

Les Roberts is the author of 13 mystery novels featuring Cleveland detective Milan Jacovich, as well as 9 other books of fiction. The past president of both the Private Eye Writers of America and the American Crime Writer’s League, he came to mystery writing after a 24-year career in Hollywood. He was the first producer and head writer of the Hollywood Squares and wrote for the Andy Griffith Show, the Jackie Gleason Show, and the Man from U.N.C.L.E., among others. He has been a professional actor, a singer, a jazz musician, and a teacher. In 2003 he received the Sherwood Anderson Literary Award. A native of Chicago, he currently lives in his adopted home town of Cleveland Heights, Ohio.