coming soon!
Devils in Paradise
Comfort & Co. Book 3
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AFTER THE BLUE, BLUE RAIN
Comfort & Company Book 1
Has Gone WIDE!
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Ebook still available on Amazon and, now, B&N, Kobo, Apple Books and other online ebook retailers.
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Paperback available to order at B&N, Bookshop.org and other online retailers.
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In 1946, as Los Angeles shifts from war to peace, struggling P.I. Kit Comfort and her partner, notorious ex-cop Henry Richman, can’t afford to say no, even when the job involves a lovelorn secretary and her wayward Army vet lover. Their routine missing persons case soon takes a deadly turn, however, when the trail leads to a cabal of fifth columnists and government agents with a secret agenda. As ethical lines blur, the detectives find themselves in a desperate race for survival and redemption.
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​Ebook Available to Buy on Amazon, B&N,
Apple Books, Fable and other online retailers.
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Paperback available at Bookshop.org, B&N and other fine retailers!
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A BESTTHRILLERS AND BOOK NERDECTION "MUST READ"!
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Audiobook Available on Spotify, Chirp, GooglePlay, Walmart, Kobo, Nook Audiobooks and other platforms.
​Narrated by Elizabeth Schmidt (SAG/AFTRA)
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Kit and Henry become entangled in L.A.'s postwar occult trade when they're hired to track down a doctor's estranged wife and her mesmerizing "spirit" lover. While Kit poses as an eager mysticism recruit, Henry digs deep into the connections of the city's lucrative séance circuit. Plunged into the strange and cutthroat world of conniving mediums and predatory gurus, Kit and Henry soon discover that for some unlucky souls, the journey to the Spirit World is strictly one-way.
Out now from A.D. Price!
"Villains, Vipers, and Dogs," featuring Tinita, the Office Dog! Only in the May 2024 issue of Mystery Magazine. Check it out on Amazon!
A. D. PRICE
A native of Washington, D. C., A. D. Price is an Emmy-winning screenwriter and author. Her publications (as Amy Dunkleberger) include educational books and feature articles on historical and arts-related subjects. In 2022, she published After the Blue, Blue Rain, her first novel and the first book in her Comfort & Company mystery series. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and faithful pooch.
the back story
After the Blue, Blue Rain is my first mystery and my first novel. If there's truth to the old saw about writing being a journey not a destination, then I've been a happy wanderer for decades. My path to mystery writing has taken more turns than a Dashiell Hammett plot, but like a good Hammett plot, it all makes sense in the end. ​Over the years, I've worked as both a freelance and staff writer (under my real name, Amy Dunkleberger) penning everything from biographical and historical pieces to publicity material and study guides. I've written for such diverse companies as Grunge.com, Netflix, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and educational publisher Enslow Press.​ I'm also the author of the Emmy-winning screenplay Other Mothers.
It was during my stint as a staff writer for the encyclopedic American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films that I uncovered the people and places that would become the characters and milieu of my first novel. For ten years, I immersed myself in the crazy, sad and triumphant decades of the 1930s and 1940s. The movies that reflected those times — the joyful screwballs, heartfelt war dramas, alluring noir tales — I fell in love with them all. And many moons later, I tapped my experience with those decades to create my own stories. I hope you enjoy the Comfort & Company Mystery series. ​
A. D. Price
Devils in Paradise
HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS DURING UNION PROTESTS
The inspiration for Devils in Paradise came from multiple sources. Based on earlier research, I felt strongly that my proposed quartet of books would be lacking if it didn’t dramatize the anti-Communist movement that was just starting to take hold in postwar America. Only a year before, the Russians had been our ally, and the Office of War Information—the folks in charge of anti-fascist, pro-democracy propaganda—had all but forced Hollywood filmmakers to produce films, including the 1944 Robert Taylor starrer Song of Russia, sympathetic to Russia.​
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Once the war ended and the allies had divvied up Berlin, however, J. Edgar Hoover, who had long loathed “Reds,” went into overdrive in his anti-communism crusade. In late 1946, when Devils in Paradise is set, the blacklist and Hollywood Ten debacle—that group of moviemakers charged with contempt by Joseph McCarthy’s House on UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC)—was a year away.
But in 1946, Hoover’s FBI and its sympathetic civilian partner the American Legion were busy investigating and publicizing their cause in newspapers and lecture halls.​While all this was happening, actual Russian spies were busy stealing plans for a military plane designed by Lockheed. The Russians were also infiltrating trade unions at the studios, but their mission there seemed to be creating division and suspicion. In October 1945, unions representing movie studio carpenters and other tradesmen, went on strike. In some cases, the protests turned violent. The strife continued into late 1946.
THE MANY HAUNTS OF COMFORT & COMPANY
From the orange groves of Anaheim to the manses of Beverly Hills to the clifftops of the Santa Ynez forest, the intrepid detectives of Comfort & Company pursue the clues wherever they lead. Below are just a few, captured in vintage postcards and old and new photographs.
In the heart of downtown, L.A.'s Central Library and Cole's restaurant and bar are frequent haunts of Kit and Henry.
Los Angeles Central Library
Henry's favorite research destination
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Cole's
Kit's favorite watering hole
Although the sign's "originator" claim has long been disputed by French dip rival Philippe's, there's no dispute that Cole's is the oldest continuous restaurant in L.A., having operated in the same central downtown location since 1908. Long popular with commuters and downtown workers, Cole's also counted gangsters like Mickey Cohen among its patrons.
Birmingham Hospital, Van Nuys, California
Stanley was a patient, and Luca practiced psychiatry here.
Constructed by U.S. military to treat returning World War II vets, Birmingham specialized in neurological injuries and combat-related psychological disorders. In 1946, the 131-acre hospital was taken over by the Veterans Administration, but was closed permanently in 1950.
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KNAPP'S CASTLE
The Birthday of Eternity, The Reverend's Castle
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Built between 1916 and 1920 by George Owen Knapp, a founder and chairman of Union Carbide, Knapp's Castle is located in the California's Los Padres National Forest, near Santa Barbara. Knapp used his money and influence to make the forest more accessible to the public, building trails and improving roads. The road that led up to the castle was winding and a bit treacherous, but offered visitors a breathtaking trip through clouds and mist.
The 160-acre property included a 3-story hunting lodge, an observation tower, various guest and servant houses, a pool and a cider mill to process the apples from a down-slope orchard. It also boasted a pipe organ. The Knapps lived there until 1940, when it was purchased by Frances Holden, a Santa Barbara psychologist. Holden, whose specialty was the study of musical genius, moved in to the property with her longtime companion, Austrian-American opera singer Lotte Lehmann. In a massive stroke of bad luck, the mansion was destroyed by a forest fire five weeks after their arrival.
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For many years, the ruins were a popular hiking and wedding photo destination, until the trail to the top was closed to the public in 2020, when new construction began. Today, the mountaintop is home to a large private manse, very nice but nothing like the sprawling, Xanadu-like property built by Knapp.
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The Rhythm Room and Brown Derby, Hollywood
Kit probes suspects and witnesses over cocktails in The Birthday of Eternity
