When Charlie Cougar gets an offer to work for Jonathon Doom, an old time movie star, be figures it'll be safer than falling off horses as a stunt-man. Doom is starting up a company called Trouble, IncorporatedÑan undercover private investigation company and he needs an assistant. The minute Charlie accepts, he is put to work on two cases. One is a prominent local businessman who thinks his wife is being blackmailed. The other is the mystery of the Scarlet Canary.

A local independent station is featuring a show where a songstress, called the Scarlet Canary, performs while concealing her identity behind a red mask. Cougar and Doom suspect the mysterious woman is Linda Jensen, the wife of a convicted murderer on death row. She comes to them in a panic because she suspects someone is trying to kill her.

Charlie soon finds his life consumed by these two mysteries and unfortunately little time to spend with his sweetheart, Sue Tallfeather. Can he balance these two cases, stunt work on the side, his personal life and still manage to stay out of harm's way?

Among his extensive writing credits, Jack Lewis has written nine feature films, five works for television, eight previous novels, 6,000 magazine articles and short stories, and seventeen other books. His many jobs have included horse wrangler, newspaper reporter, movie stuntman, and private detective. He served in World War II as a machine gunner and in both Korea and Vietnam as a Marine Corps combat correspondent, one of the Corps' famed "fighter/writers." He lives with his wife in a beach house in Hawaii.

The Scarlet Canary is Jack's fourth novel for AVALON.

Avalon Mysteries by this author:
FACE DOWN

The Charlie Cougar Mystery Series
THE COFFIN RACERS
THE SCARLET CANARY
DOUBLE CROSS

Avalon Westerns by this author:
MASSACRE MOUNTAIN
MOJAVE
RENEGADE CANYON
MANHUNTER