1. Los Angeles. For Harry Stearns, former literary agent turned private detective and now happily retired, old habits die hard. He spends his days going to his office on the Sunset Strip, reading the trades, lunching at the nearby Hamburger Hamlet, verbally jousting with his long-time secretary, Bernice, and his nights at home listening to his beloved opera records.

Then, one day, the wife of a former writer client shows up and tells Harry that her husband has been murdered and that the police are stymied and not doing much of anything, due to lack of a single clue. She begs Harry to investigate and after much entreaty, he agrees to talk to the list of Harry's acquaintances that she gave to the police.

What follows is a journey through a Los Angeles that no longer really exists, in its last, final days of being a unique city like no other. Against this backdrop, Harry begins to try to put together the puzzle pieces of what happened on the night of the murder.

Some Days Are Murder is filled with colorful characters, a lot of humor, a labyrinthine plot, and vivid detail-and at the center of it is curmudgeonly Harry, like a dog with a bone, determined to solve a baffling mystery at all costs.