MYSTERY OF THE HAUNTED LION [Hollywood Cowboy Detectives] by Darryle Purcell

AN EVIL SORCERER TARGETS CLARK GABLE & CAROLE LOMBARD, AND THE GHOSTS OF JEAN HARLOW AND GEORGE GERSHWIN TRY TO WARN MGM—CAN EVEN THE HOLLYWOOD COWBOY DETECTIVES SAVE THEM?

The team of fading B-western stars turned ghost hunters and mystery solvers, known as the Hollywood Cowboy Detectives, have a reputation around 1930s Tinseltown for getting the job done, but not without some heavy drinking followed by a moderate-to-heavy amount of chaos and destruction. They have helped Mascot, Monogram, Republic Pictures and other low-budget “Poverty Row” studios out of tight corners; but their reputation as troublemakers has kept the industry giants like MGM, Warners’, Universal, etc. studios from calling on their services as troubleshooters. But that is about to change, and the HCD are about to get their chance to move up to the big time.

It’s late December of 1939 and, at the beachfront home of Louis B. Mayer, a disreputable fortuneteller makes deadly predictions about Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer personnel that begin coming true. Film stars Clark Gable and his new wife, Carole Lombard, join with Republic flack Sean “Curly” Woods, World Champion Rodeo Cowboy Hoot Gibson and chauffeur Nick Danby, of the Hollywood Cowboy Detectives, as they battle for their lives against a supernatural power that may unleash a Hell on Earth.

While Curly attempts to get better acquainted with the Goldwyn Girl of his dreams, the detectives must fend off Bugsy Siegel’s assassins plus a demon from hell that mere mortals may not be able to destroy. Spirits of recently departed Hollywood entertainers Douglas Fairbanks, Jean Harlow, George Gershwin, Warner Oland and others warn Woods of impending danger, while also making him doubt his own sanity.

In their strangest adventure to date, the Hollywood Cowboy Detectives must track down and destroy an evil sorcerer who plans on opening a portal to hell on Christmas Eve. And even if the western heroes succeed, will their wild shenanigans cause them to lose Louis B. Mayer’s good will forever.