John Easy

Series · 3 books · 1971-1974

By Ron Goulart

Books in series

If Dying Was All

1971

John Easy searches California for a screenwriter’s daughter who’s back from the dead In 1972, Los Angeles is the wacko capital of the world. Gurus, junkies, and wannabe actresses all wind up here, and when one goes missing, John Easy is there to investigate. A hip private eye with a battered VW and a major turtleneck collection, he’s pondering an encroaching wildfire when his secretary tells him that Frederic McCleary’s daughter has risen from the dead. Five years ago, Jackie McCleary took a dive into the Pacific Ocean, leaving her old man nothing but a suicide note and his Academy Awards to keep him company. Her body was never found, and her father has long nursed a secret hope that she is still alive. Out of the blue, he receives a letter in Jackie’s handwriting asking for a meeting. When she doesn’t show, he hires John Easy to find his daughter in a city whose citizens all too often resemble the living dead.

Too Sweet to Die

1972

A vanished jungle princess forces John Easy to visit the capitol of San Francisco The jungle scenery is costing Marco Killespie a cool hundred thousand dollars. A stickler for quality, this king of television advertising doesn’t mind writing big checks, but his latest masterpiece—a root beer commercial—is in serious danger of going over budget. Everything was going fine until his leading lady, the up-and-coming Jill Jeffers, disappeared. When a blonde goes missing in 1970s Los Angeles, it’s best to call John Easy. A too-cool private eye whose wardrobe is in better shape than his worn-out VW, he knows every hiding spot in California. The first thing he learns is that Jill is a senator’s daughter. Next he discovers that she’s gone to San Francisco, the weirdest place on Earth. Finding her there will be just as simple as a walk in the jungle.

One Grave Too Many

1974

As earthquakes shake Los Angeles, John Easy looks for a missing adman John Easy never likes to get out of bed, especially when the woman beside him is as beautiful as Jill Jeffers, but no man can argue with an earthquake. The quake subsides after a few moments, but another one is coming. Something fierce is about to rock Los Angeles, and California’s hippest private detective is going to be right in the middle of it. Gay Holland, Easy’s newest client, is rich, lonely, and missing her brother Gary. The owner of a boutique radio advertising firm, Gary is recently divorced and has a married girlfriend. His apartment has been trashed, and whoever did it was violent, professional, and in search of something to do with Gary’s collection of archaeology texts. Finding Gary will mean digging deep under Los Angeles—assuming the next quake doesn’t shake the city apart first.

Author

Ron Goulart

Author · 64 books

Pseudonyms: Howard Lee; Frank S Shawn; Kenneth Robeson; Con Steffanson; Josephine Kains; Joseph Silva; William Shatner. Ron Goulart is a cultural historian and novelist. Besides writing extensively about pulp fiction—including the seminal Cheap Thrills: An Informal History of Pulp Magazines (1972)—Goulart has written for the pulps since 1952, when the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published his first story, a sci-fi parody of letters to the editor. Since then he has written dozens of novels and countless short stories, spanning genres and using a variety of pennames, including Kenneth Robeson, Joseph Silva, and Con Steffanson. In the 1990s, he became the ghostwriter for William Shatner’s popular TekWar novels. Goulart’s After Things Fell Apart (1970) is the only science-fiction novel to ever win an Edgar Award. In the 1970s Goulart wrote novels starring series characters like Flash Gordon and the Phantom, and in 1980 he published Hail Hibbler, a comic sci-fi novel that began the Odd Jobs, Inc. series. Goulart has also written several comic mystery series, including six books starring Groucho Marx. Having written for comic books, Goulart produced several histories of the art form, including the Comic Book Encyclopedia (2004).