Dewey, Cheatum and Howe?
Moe Howard of the Three Stooges plays detective in Murdelized, one of 14 stories contained in Hollywood and Crime: An Anthology of Hollywood Crime Stories.
The stories are scattered through time from the 1930s to the present but all intersect at Hollywood and Vine.
Michael Connelly has contributed a Harry Bosch story, just the thing for the fans who need a little something to tide them over until his next novel.
There is a Hedda Hopper story set in the 1960s by Robert S. Levinson as well.
Hollywood based mystery series offer us many different views of life in the City of the Angels.
There are the amateur detectives. If she were still around, Hedda would have some serious competition from Jon P. Bloch's gay gossip columnist Rick Domino.
Celebrity mystery fans can find a laugh per line in Ron Goulart's Groucho Marx outings.
Cozy lovers will enjoy the escapades of Marlys Millhiser's hotshot literary agent Charlie Green.
Culinary mystery fans can savor the adventures of Jerrilyn Farmer's Madeline Bean, caterer to the rich and famous.
And then there are the professionals. Stuart Kaminsky's Toby Peters would have to be at the top of my list of Hollywood private eyes.
Terence Faherty's Scott Elliott is also a 1940s P.I. although a bit more on the hard-boiled side.
Later gumshoes include R. Wright Campbell's Chandleresque James Whistler and Robert Crais's wisecracking collector of Disneyana Elvis Cole.
This past summer's thriller City of Fire, by local author Robert Ellis, features L.A.P.D. detective Lena Gamble who is hampered by city politics and the ravenous Hollywood media while on a desperate search for a sociopathic serial killer who is targeting beautiful young women.
Parting shots from Groucho Marx:
"Ever since they found out that Lassie was a boy, the public has believed the worst about Hollywood."
"Outside a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read."