Gangster Hotel: Just one of the LAPD based novels in the franchise
Crime fiction author Ed Van Meyer has decided to sell the successful crime fiction franchise he has based in the Los Angeles and Santa Monica areas of California.
The franchise majored with the movie length leviathan novel 'The Olivia Pages' case, a 360+ page epic which the real life tragic events surrounding Marilyn Monroe's untimely death in 1962 provided some inspiration for.
Ed Van Meyer said of Olivia, "I have always had a great regard and admiration for Marilyn Monroe and having read much about her life and seem many of the documentaries about her, provided me with much reference material. However, I wrote my own story in 'Olivia', those events of 1962 helped provide useful inspiration for me."
'Olivia,' twists and turns through a 1962 Cuban Missile crisis America, with the action taking place in San Francisco, Malibu and Los Angeles areas. It starts with a something or nothing burglary and attempted arson and twists out into a pacy all meat and no gristle hard boiler which concludes explosively in a 'modern' day 2002 Los Angeles.
Ed Van Meyer uses a core of characters who often crop up across his books. "My LAPD Detective 1200 series started because I bought a film prop LAPD Detective badge with the 1200 number on it. I was in the police years ago before an injury halted that career." Van Meyer states.
"So I looked at the badge in my hand and said 'tell me your story,' and it went from there. I fleshed out a location in Santa Monica, gave my small Detective Bureau a purpose, revisiting cold cases and responding to crime generally, so as no to limit it. I often use personal ideas, things I read about or draw on my own police experience in my work. Most writers never walked a beat or smelt crime close up. I have. That's the difference, I'm not getting this stuff secondhand, I lived it!" Van Meyer states.
The Detective 1200 books spawned a collection of 11 short stories, essentially written for television adaption as a series of three-quarter hour length programs, with an hour and a half feature length 'Christmas special'. No stranger to the spotlight as a musician for many years, his parents met whilst working in British Television at the BBC in the 1960's.
A second series of LAPD 1200 stories exists as a written out storylines ready to be made into new material. "They are never samey, I made the choice to ensure every storyline was different, the only common linking factors were crime and policing." He adds.
Spin off characters like LAPD Homicide Detective 1009 Baumer from some of the other LAPD works get their own books, two spinoff feature length books designed to be adapted as a mini series of hour and a half length films were written. 'The Fall and rise of Frank Lafferty,' features Baumer and uses a California law test case from 1945 in respect of a person who was presumed to be dead, but is he?
Similarly, in the follow up novel, Detective Baumer is dropped into a completely unfamiliar world of the underground world of BDSM, Gay fetish and Nazi fetish establishments to catch a serial killer stalking the Los Angeles Gay Community.
The novel called 'The Fagot of Herbs,' aka 'A fistful of Dildoes,' is an exploration of investigating an often off the track world and the need to apprehend killers quickly who hide in the unfamiliar masses.
"Fagot of Herbs is the name of a fictional restaurant in the book, I saw a cooking program on TV some years back in England and a visiting American chef was doing a recipe, live. He then said 'toss in a fagot of herbs' and I thought ' that might be useful' "
Van Meyer continues, "It wasn't a slant at the gay community, it is the sort of thing they do, send themselves up. I was certainly a fan of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry charachter and had him in mind when I wrote the story, the race against time theme as was explored in that first film using that character. Also the film about Harvey Milk provided me with another useful character, in this book, a Gay Mayor exploiting the killings for publicity." Van Meyer continues
"I wanted to try and build the tension and action I had seen in films like Bullitt and Dirty Harry. You have to watch Bullitt about three or four times to really work out what is what and who is the Chalmers character really working for?" Van Meyer inquires.
As someone interested in history, Ed Van Meyer who has written about the Korean War and WW2, subjects he has long held an interest in, is no stranger to literary time travel.
"That is true, often I skip between the past and present in my works, it brings extra dimension to the work, often referencing historical footnotes and incorporating them into the work is satisfying." Van Meyer believes.
The most recent outing for his LAPD Detectives came with the 'The Gangster Hotel case' a nourish book set in early 1962 Los Angeles, also published as The Blue Hotel case. It features LAPD Policeman 744 who teams up with a young LAPD Detective Will White who later appears in the Olivia Pages book.
"The most satisfying comment came from a native Angeleno now living in Germany who said that reading my books was like being back at home, that was great to hear." He states. So why does Ed Van Meyer write we ask?
"I was retired from the Police due to an injury on duty, whilst I was looking for another job I started writing and cranked out 2 books in two months. My English teacher always said I was good at writing a story, so it just seemed a natural thing to do." He states.
"It will be sad to move the franchise on but I have other projects to do and also work with helping the American Indian peoples situation which is very worthwhile for me on a personal level and which I am hoping the sale of this will help to finance." Van Meyer states.
The published works can be seen on Amazon's Kindle site.
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