Where Everything Ends
by Ray Bradbury
In 1949, a struggling writer--a man very much like the young Ray Bradbury--boards a late night trolley in Venice, California and hears a disembodied voice murmur the words: “Death is a lonely business. ” Shortly afterward, that same young man discovers a body trapped in a cage beneath the waters of the local canal. Convinced of a connection between these events, the narrator/hero--together with a detective named Elmo Crumley (named in a nod to noted mystery novelist James Crumley) – begins to investigate a series of suspicious deaths among the disenfranchised population of Venice.
Death is a Lonely Business was Ray Bradbury’s first book-length foray into classical detective fiction. Two others followed: A Graveyard for Lunatics, in which Crumley and our hero (now a gainfully employed scriptwriter) join forces with special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen, and Let’s All Kill Constance, a tale of mystery and suspense set against the faded backdrop of Hollywood’s Golden Age. All three, together with “Where Everything Ends,” the never-before-published title story that preceded and inspired them, are gathered together in a single volume.
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In 1949, a struggling writer--a man very much like the young Ray Bradbury--boards a late night trolley in Venice, California and hears a disembodied voice murmur the words: “Death is a lonely business. ” Shortly afterward, that same young man discovers a body trapped in a cage beneath the waters of the local canal. Convinced of a connection between these events, the narrator/hero--together with a detective named Elmo Crumley (named in a nod to noted mystery novelist James Crumley) – begins to investigate a series of suspicious deaths among the disenfranchised population of Venice. Death is a Lonely Business was Ray Bradbury’s first book-length foray into classical detective fiction. Two others followed: A Graveyard for Lunatics, in which Crumley and our hero (now a gainfully employed scriptwriter) join forces with special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen, and Let’s All Kill Constance, a tale of mystery and suspense set against the faded backdrop of Hollywood’s Golden Age. All three, together with “Where Everything Ends,” the never-before-published title story that preceded and inspired them, are gathered together in a single volume.