Two classic Al Wheeler thrillers

The Wicked
“A guy who knows Deirdre Damour that well,” he said, “is just wasting time being dead!”

The Wicked was the first Carter Brown novella to feature the ‘unorthodox’ LA Lieutenant Al Wheeler and it sees Al investigating the murder of a screenwriter of a western who made enemies of the cast and crew by writing a series of kiss and tell articles for a gossip magazine. Al knows that the cop who found the body is hiding something and soon there are dead bodies aplenty while our hero falls for the leading lady — and pretty much every other dame in town!
Blonde Verdict
“I was just sitting there minding my own business, when this guy dropped dead at my feet!”

In Blonde Verdict (published as The Brazen in the US) Lieutenant Al Wheeler investigates the murder of a lawyer after the man is scratched with curare. Before long his mistress and her lover are also bumped off in the same manner. Is the killer the lawyer’s merry widow, a Chicago mobster who recently arrived in town, or someone else? And what of the woman Al ends up proposing to?