Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kill Me Again | 1996 | Terence Faherty | Buy |
| 2 | Come Back Dead | 1997 | Terence Faherty | Buy |
| 3 | Raise the Devil | 2000 | Terence Faherty | Buy |
| 4 | In a Teapot | 2005 | Terence Faherty | Buy |
| 5 | The Hollywood Op | 2011 | Terence Faherty | Buy |
| 6 | Dance in the Dark | 2011 | Terence Faherty | Buy |
| 7 | Play a Cold Hand | 2017 | Terence Faherty | Buy |
The Scott Elliott Mystery series by Terence Faherty is set in the golden age of Hollywood and its aftermath. Scott Elliott was a contract player whose minor acting career was cut short by World War II. After the war, he returned to find no one needed his services as an actor, so he drifted into security work to stay connected to the movie business. As the top operative of the Hollywood Security Agency, he specializes in handling the studios’ dirty laundry.
The series begins with Kill Me Again (1996) and spans the era from 1946 through the mid-1960s, charting the decline of the studio system through Elliott’s cases. The second novel, Come Back Dead (1997), won the Shamus Award for Best Private Eye Novel. Each book immerses the reader in the period’s atmosphere, from the faded glamour of studio lots to the sun-bleached streets of postwar Los Angeles.
The novels can be read in any order, though publication order provides the best sense of Elliott’s life and the changing Hollywood landscape around him.