Brock's boyhood idol moves in next door before vanishing and leaving a body in his wake

In Hollywood's golden age, there was no finer swashbuckler than Fortney Grange. Decades after he last swung on a chandelier, Grange is nearly forgotten, his legacy surviving only in fuzzy black-and-white on the late-late movie channel. But to Brock Callahan, Grange remains a hero. When his idol shacks up with the aged widow next door, the ex-private investigator is starstruck. It takes a murder for the celluloid sheen to begin to fade.

A strange pair of Arizona blackmailers takes up residence in a van outside Grange's house. Grange and his new lady friend disappear, and a few days later, his agent is found dead. Though it breaks his heart, Callahan is forced to investigate the man who has given him so much joy. And it will take more than swordplay for this aging daredevil to escape the chair.

The Dead Seed is the 11th book in the Brock Callahan Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.