Nightmare Time

Hugh Pentecost

Oct 2013 · The Pierre Chambrun Mysteries Book 21 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

DIVDIVA lost boy draws Pierre Chambrun into an international conspiracy/divDIVGuy Willis knows that if he is ever in trouble at the Beaumont Hotel, he can trust Pierre Chambrun. The manager of this world-famous Manhattan institution, Chambrun owes his life to young Guy’s father—an Air Force intelligence operative who once rescued the unflappable Frenchman from a gang of terrorists. When Guy’s parents disappear during a stay at the Beaumont, a priest turns up and approaches the boy, claiming to be an old family friend sent to take care of him. Guy doesn’t trust the phony padre—or the pistol in his shoulder holster—one bit, and screams for Chambrun to help./divDIV /divDIVChambrun dispatches the ersatz priest, but finding Guy’s parents will be more than a matter of visiting the lost and found. Major Willis has been kidnapped, and if he is not recovered, it will be more than just a mishap for the hotel—it will be a catastrophe for all of the United States./div/div

About the author

Hugh Pentecost was a penname of mystery author Judson Philips (1903–1989). Born in Massachusetts, Philips came of age during the golden age of pulp magazines, and spent the 1930s writing suspense fiction and sports stories for a number of famous pulps. His first book was Hold ’Em Girls! The Intelligent Women’s Guide to Men and Football (1936). In 1939, his crime story Cancelled in Red won the Red Badge prize, launching his career as a novelist. Philips went on to write nearly one hundred books over the next five decades.DIV /divDIVHis best-known characters were Pierre Chambrun, a sleuthing hotel manager who first appeared in The Cannibal Who Overate (1962), and the one-legged investigative reporter Peter Styles, introduced in Laughter Trap (1964). Although he spent his last years with failing vision and poor health, Philips continued writing daily. His final novel was the posthumously published Pattern for Terror (1989)./div