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Title: The Case of the Angry Actress

Author: Howard Fast

Narrator: Brian Nishii

Format: Unabridged

Length: 6 hrs and 4 mins

Language: English

Release date: 11-06-13

Publisher: Audible Studios

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 4 votes

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

Publisher's Summary:

Detective Masuto investigates a Hollywood moguls sudden death.

The residents of Beverly Hills tend to underestimate a Buddhist homicide detective, and Masao Masuto is happy to let them make that mistake. A second-generation Japanese-American, he relishes the thrill of a puzzling murder case. And Masuto will need all his powers of deduction to understand the murder of Al Greenberg.

The producer was giving a party when his heart stopped. After years of bad health, Greenbergs abrupt death is no surprise. But one of the dead mans producing partners claims to have overheard an unknown woman taunting Greenberg, while he pleaded, "put that gun away and give me my medicine." It appears Greenberg was frightened to death. To find the killer, Masuto must dig into the darkest secrets of the moguls past. Greenberg will not be the last to die.

Editorial Reviews:

Brian Nishii brings a sense of dramatic urgency to bestselling author Howard Fasts 1967 mystery novel, The Case of the Angry Actress.

Fasts novel stars Masao Masuto, a second-generation Japanese-American detective, who also happens to be Buddhist. In this case, Matsuo needs to untangle the secrets that lie behind the mysterious death of a Hollywood studio executive. Fast, the screenwriter for the Oscar-winning 1960 film Spartacus, writes about Hollywood from an insiders perspective.

Nishii offers an engaged performance, his voice growing in intensity and shifting for his distinct characterizations.

Members Reviews:

Beverly Hills Detective

Somewhat older genre of mystery story without unnecessary gore or brutality. Lovely mystery to be solved by a second generation Japanese detective

A Prolific American Novelist Turns out a Quickie Novel

In 1967, the author of a series of popular novels and screenplays, turned to the writing of detective stories and other light fiction under the pseudonym of E. V. Cunningham. This is the first in his mystery series starring a Japanese-American policeman for the Beverly Hills (California) Police Force. The story begins with the death from a heart attack of a noted head of a Hollywood Film Studio. Was it a heart attack? It might well be that he was the victim of a killer who had set out to avenge the (voluntary) sexual encounters between an actress-wannabe and a number of studio employees some eleven years before. As obvious killings take place, Detective Masuto is charged with the task of uncovering the murderer and preventing further deaths.

Fast, best known for his novel, Spartacus, for which he did the screenplay, here pretty much steers clear of the social and political activism which motivated most of his work. For those interested, there is a more elaborate than usual biographical sketch included with the book, although it puts the best light on the political beliefs and activities which earned him a conviction for Contempt of Congress and a three month sentence to a minimum security Federal prison. I prefer not to enter into Howard Fast's background, sticking to reviewing E. V. Cunningham.

This book (published in 1967) is quite consistent with the nature of so many of the kindle mystery books. It contains none of the research nor care for plot and character construction which mark the more serious (to him) work he produced. It is a light work, easily read, with sufficient character development for such a book but nothing like what a P. D. James might produce today.