Dead of Night

About the Book

The story of a woman’s obsession with money…power…prestige; married to a man with a shocking, secret past.  Well-known, wealthy novelist, Paul Laszlo is found dead in his luxurious Hollywood Hills mansion, apparently the victim of a suicide.  Upon further investigation by LAPD detectives, Joe Mallory and Derek Brooks, the suicide theory is ruled out.  A ballistics report indicates Laszlo was murdered; a single gunshot wound to the head.  An intense investigation follows, with Diane Laszlo, the victim’s wife, as the prime suspect.  The detectives zero-in on Mrs. Laszlo primarily because her first husband died in a mysterious boating accident, leaving her with an insurance settlement of $500,000.  In a divorce settlement with her second husband, Diane gained custody of their teen-aged son and a lump sum of $200,000.  Further probing into her background, reveals that Mrs. Laszlo was manipulative, a gross opportunist, a woman who would stop at nothing to get what she wants.  With greed as her motive, Mallory suspects Diane may have been involved in Laszlo’s death, but the detectives don’t have a shred of evidence to arrest her.

The story’s subplot involves the murder of a black prostitute at a Sunset Boulevard motel.  This is followed by a raid on an East L.A. apartment where the suspect, Juan Comacho manages to elude the police.  Later, Comacho is arrested in a Spanish Harlem bar and extradited back to California by NYPD Det. Brad Shaner.  It is here that the two plots intersect.  Offering a fresh look, a new perspective on the Laszlo murder, Shaner joins Mallory in reviewing the case file.  Viewing autopsy photos, Shaner recognizes Laszlo from a sexual assault arrest made in New York, almost twenty-eight years before.  At that time he was known as Paul Barac.  As the climax approaches, Mark, Laszlo’s stepson is interrogated.  In a tearful confession (told in flashback) the sixteen-year-old boy relates a year of sexual molestation by Laszlo, ending in Mark’s desperate attempt to end it all…by killing his stepfather.

About the Author

John Leslie Evans, born in Corsham, England and raised in Kimberley, British Columbia, Canada, presently lives in Brea, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, His first published novel, “Prescription: Murder,” was adapted from a screenplay by the same name. His second novel, “Eyes of a Killer,” tells the story of a predatory woman who lures a rogue cop into a complex web of murder and deception. In addition, Mr. Evans has just completed “A Question of Murder,” which was also adapted from a screenplay. The story concerns the alleged murder-suicide of tabloid publisher, Randall Curtiss and his wife, in their palatial Hollywood Hills mansion