Twenty-Year Death

1931 - The body found in the gutter in France led the police inspector to the dead man’s beautiful daughter - and to her hot-tempered American husband. 1941 - A hardboiled private eye hired to keep a movie studio’s leading lady happy uncovers the truth behind the brutal slaying of a Hollywood starlet. 1951 - A desperate man pursuing his last chance at redemption finds himself with blood on his hands and the police on his trail...

In 1941 Hollywood, a movie studio hires a down-and-out private eye to watch one of their leading ladies, an actress who thinks she’s being stalked. Is there really a mysterious man after her? After another actress is brutally slain, the detective discovers the truth, uncovering corruption deep within the studio system.

Returning east for the reading of his first wife’s Will, a desperate man - drunk and down to his last penny - is pushed over the edge when he learns that another man is the sole beneficiary. How far will he go to get what he believes he’s due? And afterwards, will he be able to escape the long arm of the law? Set in 1951 and written in the style of noir master Jim Thompson, Police at the Funeral is the third volume of Ariel S. Winter’s extraordinary debut novel, The Twenty-Year Death.