All roads seem to lead Archer back to one very significant place, and with that comes a true sense of threat and an escalation in pacing and tension that brings Archer as close to a permanent ending as any man might ever wish, or not, to come. His language is descriptive, but focused on moving the story forward with mystery driven elements, action sequences, and moments of discovery along the way. Archer is soon in the thick of the action when on a visit to Eleanor Lamb’s house stumbles on a dead body and knocked unconscious. He discovers that there’s far more to be worried about than be impressed with in this lifestyle as he uncovers a brutal world of drugs, sex and blackmail.

Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Onward to 1952 Hollywood, this third instalment of the Aloysius Archer adventures in Dream Town is by David Baldacci. Archer is not for me and, Heaven forbid, this series continues, I won’t be wasting any more time on it. While there a mousy woman named Eleanor Lamb approaches Archer with a shocking accusation that someone is out to kill her, and she'd like to hire Archer to find out who it is and what they want.The narrator, soon established as Elliot Chase, then zooms out to address the reader directly, introducing the players—most importantly movie star Lana Farrar. Then she disappears, Archer trips over a corpse, and he is caught up in a wild investigation which includes Hollywood actors, gangsters, drugs, people smuggling and more. In a place where cops and crooks work hand in hand, Archer will cross paths with Hollywood stars, politicians and notorious criminals.

It doesn’t take long for the job to take a turn for the bizarre when Archer finds a man murdered in Lamb’s house and, to top it off, Lamb has disappeared off the face of the planet. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

A true gumshoe story that keeps the reader engaged and provides an entertaining tale of times when detective work was much simpler. Being a private investigator is a dangerous business and 'even good guys can make bad choices when things get desperate. Overall, “Dream Town” is an enjoyable journey back in time when things were different and America was recovering and rebuilding following the devastation of World War II, and unfortunately men and power ran the world. Private investigator and World War II veteran Aloysius Archer heads to Los Angeles, the city where dreams are made and shattered, and is ensnared in a lethal case.