An Ethel Thomas Detective Story When Ethel Thomas, octogenarian writer of mysteries and sometime amateur detective, received a telegram from her niece Stella that read "Am in ghastly mess, trapped, no place to turn," she arranged a seat on the next transcontinental flight bound for Hollywood, only to discover on her arrival that the "ghastly mess" was murder. Despite her age, Miss Thomas was no stranger to murder, having participated in a number of cases in her native New York, but now she finds herself in the unfamiliar world of the motion picture industry an enmeshed in a web of blackmail, corruption, and murder while having to deal with an unknown, and unfriendly, police detective. With the bodies piling up it will require all her wits and charm to extricate her niece and herself from the "ghastly mess" they find themselves in.