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Masao Masuto #6
The Case of the Kidnapped Angel
Detective Masuto investigates a Hollywood kidnapping that leads to a shocking conspiracy.
Angel is Hollywood royalty. Her husband, Mike Barton, is one of the silver screen's most bankable stars, and their marriage has all the hallmarks of a Beverly Hills fairy tale. But everything about Angel's past is kept secret, including her real name. When reporters ask why Mike dubbed her Angel, she says that she must have fallen from heaven. No one knows where Angel Barton is from, and now no one knows where she has gone.
When his wife disappears, Barton readily agrees to a million dollar ransom demanded by her kidnappers, but Zen detective Masao Masuto doesn't buy his performance. As Masuto pries into the strange kidnapping case, he finds that Barton might be much more likely to pay to get rid of his wife than to keep her.
Angel is Hollywood royalty. Her husband, Mike Barton, is one of the silver screen's most bankable stars, and their marriage has all the hallmarks of a Beverly Hills fairy tale. But everything about Angel's past is kept secret, including her real name. When reporters ask why Mike dubbed her Angel, she says that she must have fallen from heaven. No one knows where Angel Barton is from, and now no one knows where she has gone.
When his wife disappears, Barton readily agrees to a million dollar ransom demanded by her kidnappers, but Zen detective Masao Masuto doesn't buy his performance. As Masuto pries into the strange kidnapping case, he finds that Barton might be much more likely to pay to get rid of his wife than to keep her.
180 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
12 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
E.V. Cunningham
32 books10 followersEV Cunningham is a pseudonym used by author: Howard Fast, and under that name he wrote 21 mystery novels plus two others, one under his own name and one using another pseudonym Walter Ericson.
He was educated at George Washington High School, graduating in 1931. He attended the National Academy of Design in New York before serving with the Office of War Information between 1942 and 1943 and the Army Film Project in 1944.
He became war correspondent in the Far East for 'Esquire' and 'Coronet' magazines in 1945. And after the war he taught at Indiana University, Bloomington, in the summer of 1947, a year in which he was imprisoned for contempt of Congress, concerning his communistic views.
He became the owner of the Blue Heron Press in New York in 1952, a position he held until 1957. And he was the founder of the World Peace Movement and a member of the World Peace Council from 1950 to 1955 and was later a member of the Fellowship for Reconciliation. In 1952 he was an American Labour Party candidate for Congress for the 23rd District of New York.
He received a great many awards between 1933 and 1967.
He married Bette Cohen in 1937 and they had one son and one daughter.
Under his own name he wrote 35 works of fiction plus a variety of history and critical works, short stories, plays and a screenplay, 'The Hessian' (1971) plus a book of verse with William Gropper.
He died died at his home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, on 12 March 2003.
Gerry Wolstenholme
March 2022
He was educated at George Washington High School, graduating in 1931. He attended the National Academy of Design in New York before serving with the Office of War Information between 1942 and 1943 and the Army Film Project in 1944.
He became war correspondent in the Far East for 'Esquire' and 'Coronet' magazines in 1945. And after the war he taught at Indiana University, Bloomington, in the summer of 1947, a year in which he was imprisoned for contempt of Congress, concerning his communistic views.
He became the owner of the Blue Heron Press in New York in 1952, a position he held until 1957. And he was the founder of the World Peace Movement and a member of the World Peace Council from 1950 to 1955 and was later a member of the Fellowship for Reconciliation. In 1952 he was an American Labour Party candidate for Congress for the 23rd District of New York.
He received a great many awards between 1933 and 1967.
He married Bette Cohen in 1937 and they had one son and one daughter.
Under his own name he wrote 35 works of fiction plus a variety of history and critical works, short stories, plays and a screenplay, 'The Hessian' (1971) plus a book of verse with William Gropper.
He died died at his home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, on 12 March 2003.
Gerry Wolstenholme
March 2022
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 16, 2022
(3.5 stars) This was written in the 80s as part of a series about a Japanese-American "Zen detective" named Masao Masuto. It's short and to the point and feels very much of its time. I've seen these books on lists of cozy mysteries, but though it may not "hard-boiled" like Hammet or Chandler, it's hardly a cozy--it's a fairly traditional police detective story though it does contain a conclusion which features all the suspects gathered in a room just like in Agatha Christie. A major plot point (which I won't spoil) involves something that might have been seen as a bit arcane and strange back then but would be relatively normal today. Enjoyable enough, but Masuto isn't a particularly strongly drawn character. I might read earlier ones in the series if I run across them.
August 25, 2014
If you don’t know what a Nisei is, you’re probably not alone, but it’s a concept vital to understanding Detective Sergeant Masao Masuto of the Beverly Hills Police Department since he is one, and it’s something that comes to the fore periodically as the plot of “The Case of the Kidnapped Angel” twists and turns toward a conclusion. A Nisei is a person born in another country of parents who originally emigrated from Japan; the race- and culture-conscious Japanese have special terms for these diasporic generations, unto at least the fifth generation, perhaps a way of saying, you are not quite Japanese anymore, but never forget, wherever you are, you are still Japanese. In Masuto’s case, he can speak Japanese, but has never been to Japan, and when he meets older people from Japan, his meditation teacher for example, there is a barrier between them, just as there is a barrier between him and his fellow police officers. In both cases, the barriers are in Masuto’s mind, but that does not make them any less real, and always puts him in the awkward and unwinnable position of trying to keep up with one world while trying not to let go of another.
Mike Barton is a big movie star, up there in popularity with John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Sean Connery, and he’s a resident, of course, of Beverly Hills, one of the moneyed elite. It’s not so much that he can act or is terribly clever, but that he is popular. People want to see his films simply because he’s in them and he’s one of those rare people that to see him is to like him, even if you can’t figure out why. It may seem like a flimsy excuse for fame, but, really, it’s the bedrock of Hollywood. He’s married to a woman desired by all, beautiful beyond compare; she’s the Angel…it’s the name he gave her when they married, and the only one she has…a woman of mystery…who seemed to come into existence solely for the purpose of marrying Mike Barton. All attempts to penetrate her past are to no avail.
The book starts with the kidnapping of Angel Barton. No, actually that’s the beginning of the plot, since the book actually starts with Masuto practicing his Zen meditation in the tiny room he’s set aside at his house for pursuing the ancient tradition when an Hispanic youth crawls through the window intent on burglarizing the supposedly empty house. Masuto want to arrest the hapless lad, but his wife, Kati, won’t hear of it and ends up fixing the boy breakfast before sending him on his way with a warning. Masuto may be trying to create connections between him and his past, but Kati is part of a group trying to raise the consciousness and self-awareness of Nisei women, which not only raises Kati’s sense of empathy, at least for bungling burglars, while educating her that she should not run her husband’s bath water and should occasionally tell him to fix his own lunch. At least Masuto does not have to dwell too long on the unfairness of either culture tugging at him because Angel Barton has indeed been kidnapped.
Or has she? From the beginning, Sergeant Masuto is doubtful about the validity of the kidnapping. The ransom is a million bucks, and Mike Barton is adamant about the non-involvement of the police, insanely adamant. In fact, the only reason the BHPD finds out about it is because friends have let it leak to the press, or maybe the press just knows about it clairvoyantly, which seems to be the real basis for most Hollywood gossip, and Masuto has to go see Barton in the guise of a gardener, truck and all (rented for $100 out of the police department budget). But police assistance is rebuffed. The money is gathered and Barton goes off alone to deliver the money. Angel is returned unharmed, though shaken, but Barton does not come back. Speculation that he has skipped with the ransom is quashed when he is found sitting in his car, a neat hole in the center of his forehead, a rather messier one out the back.
About a third of the way through the book, Masuto tells his captain that he knows who killed Barton, but won’t give up the name because he has no proof. Is he trying to hide the fact he has no idea? Is he being Zen? Is he playing for more time to gather evidence? Or is he being stereotypically inscrutable, just because he can? And then Angel is killed, but she does not quite remain the woman of mystery in death that she was in life, for, in this case, all secrets are revealed in death. Well, almost all…Masuto tells his captain he knows who killed the Angel, but he has no proof, so he can’t…well, you know.
A third murder takes place, this time the foul-mouthed bigoted ex-con of a chauffeur, and again Masuto knows who did it but has no proof. This time, however, he does have proof that his gut feeling that the amateurish kidnapping was bogus, and he uses that to not only find his way to a solution, of sorts, but to set up a scene taken directly from detective fiction (which he does not read, he claims), where all the suspects are gathered together and all is explained.
Part police procedural, part classic detective story, part Zen novel, “The Case of the Kidnapped Angel” brings these disparate elements together in a setting that typifies the moral corruption and shallowness of Hollywood, with a character that is engaging and sympathetic, accessible and alien, understandable and enigmatic. There is some social commentary, but it does not get in the way of the plot, and the message never overpowers the entertainment. It is a great book for someone looking for a light and fast-moving mystery, yet one that has some meat on it.
E.V. Cunningham is, of course, a pseudonym for “a bestselling author,” who we now know to be Howard Fast, prolific author famous for the novels “Spartacus” and “The Immigrants,” though science fiction fans also know him for several excellent stories, collected in “The General Zapped an Angel”…no relation to Angel Barton, of course. Under the Cunningham name, he wrote seven Masao Masuto mysteries, of which “The Case of the Kidnapped Angel” is the penultimate book.
Mike Barton is a big movie star, up there in popularity with John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and Sean Connery, and he’s a resident, of course, of Beverly Hills, one of the moneyed elite. It’s not so much that he can act or is terribly clever, but that he is popular. People want to see his films simply because he’s in them and he’s one of those rare people that to see him is to like him, even if you can’t figure out why. It may seem like a flimsy excuse for fame, but, really, it’s the bedrock of Hollywood. He’s married to a woman desired by all, beautiful beyond compare; she’s the Angel…it’s the name he gave her when they married, and the only one she has…a woman of mystery…who seemed to come into existence solely for the purpose of marrying Mike Barton. All attempts to penetrate her past are to no avail.
The book starts with the kidnapping of Angel Barton. No, actually that’s the beginning of the plot, since the book actually starts with Masuto practicing his Zen meditation in the tiny room he’s set aside at his house for pursuing the ancient tradition when an Hispanic youth crawls through the window intent on burglarizing the supposedly empty house. Masuto want to arrest the hapless lad, but his wife, Kati, won’t hear of it and ends up fixing the boy breakfast before sending him on his way with a warning. Masuto may be trying to create connections between him and his past, but Kati is part of a group trying to raise the consciousness and self-awareness of Nisei women, which not only raises Kati’s sense of empathy, at least for bungling burglars, while educating her that she should not run her husband’s bath water and should occasionally tell him to fix his own lunch. At least Masuto does not have to dwell too long on the unfairness of either culture tugging at him because Angel Barton has indeed been kidnapped.
Or has she? From the beginning, Sergeant Masuto is doubtful about the validity of the kidnapping. The ransom is a million bucks, and Mike Barton is adamant about the non-involvement of the police, insanely adamant. In fact, the only reason the BHPD finds out about it is because friends have let it leak to the press, or maybe the press just knows about it clairvoyantly, which seems to be the real basis for most Hollywood gossip, and Masuto has to go see Barton in the guise of a gardener, truck and all (rented for $100 out of the police department budget). But police assistance is rebuffed. The money is gathered and Barton goes off alone to deliver the money. Angel is returned unharmed, though shaken, but Barton does not come back. Speculation that he has skipped with the ransom is quashed when he is found sitting in his car, a neat hole in the center of his forehead, a rather messier one out the back.
About a third of the way through the book, Masuto tells his captain that he knows who killed Barton, but won’t give up the name because he has no proof. Is he trying to hide the fact he has no idea? Is he being Zen? Is he playing for more time to gather evidence? Or is he being stereotypically inscrutable, just because he can? And then Angel is killed, but she does not quite remain the woman of mystery in death that she was in life, for, in this case, all secrets are revealed in death. Well, almost all…Masuto tells his captain he knows who killed the Angel, but he has no proof, so he can’t…well, you know.
A third murder takes place, this time the foul-mouthed bigoted ex-con of a chauffeur, and again Masuto knows who did it but has no proof. This time, however, he does have proof that his gut feeling that the amateurish kidnapping was bogus, and he uses that to not only find his way to a solution, of sorts, but to set up a scene taken directly from detective fiction (which he does not read, he claims), where all the suspects are gathered together and all is explained.
Part police procedural, part classic detective story, part Zen novel, “The Case of the Kidnapped Angel” brings these disparate elements together in a setting that typifies the moral corruption and shallowness of Hollywood, with a character that is engaging and sympathetic, accessible and alien, understandable and enigmatic. There is some social commentary, but it does not get in the way of the plot, and the message never overpowers the entertainment. It is a great book for someone looking for a light and fast-moving mystery, yet one that has some meat on it.
E.V. Cunningham is, of course, a pseudonym for “a bestselling author,” who we now know to be Howard Fast, prolific author famous for the novels “Spartacus” and “The Immigrants,” though science fiction fans also know him for several excellent stories, collected in “The General Zapped an Angel”…no relation to Angel Barton, of course. Under the Cunningham name, he wrote seven Masao Masuto mysteries, of which “The Case of the Kidnapped Angel” is the penultimate book.
January 25, 2025
This is the sixth book of the Masao Masuto series, written by Howard Fast under the name of E.V.Cunningham. The story centers around a Hollywood kidnapping, where the woman is married to one of Moviedom's biggest stars. All parties agree to keep this under wraps to avoid bad publicity. The husband pays the ransom, and the wife returns. All is well...or is it? Masuto, a Nisei detective for the Beverly Hills PD, has his suspicions. Soon after, the husband is murdered, followed by the wife. If the ransom was paid, it wouldn't make sense for the kidnappers to kill the husband after. And what exactly was it that killed the wife? For that matter, no one seems to know who the wife really was, as she seems to have burst on the scene completely out of the blue. I've read two other books in this series previously, and this one is the best so far. All is revealed, but all is not resolved. Apparently, sometimes crime, even if it doesn't pay, goes unpunished.
September 8, 2020
If you have seen the Charlie Chan mystery movies, you will have a good sense of what to expect in this short book. It is a quick read. The foreshadowing is incredibly subtle. A well done mystery, with a open end, that made me wonder if I had read from book one in the series, would I have more of a sense of Masao Musuto's style. In some ways it almost felt like it was a script for a TV episode that grew into a book. Ah so.... Zen
November 5, 2018
An easy and at times hilarious read about a detective of whom I've never heard. I'd like to start the series from book one as this was a book I picked up at a library book sale not knowing it was part of a series.
August 25, 2015
A Marylin Monroe lookalike married to a handsome movie star (Rock Hudson's name is never mentioned, but the comparison is implicit) is snatched. The Beverly Hills cops are told to help with the ransom drop without making any waves. But the kidnapping may not be what it appears.So far, so 1970s TV cop show predictable. Ho-hum, thought I. However there are a couple of interesting, unexpected twists in the tale, though I personally found the ending dissatisfying. I was annoyed and incredulous that everyone would refer to the kidnapped beauty as "the Angel" instead of just "Angel", even though she is supposedly a mystery woman without a past. Obviously she did not "drop from heaven", and people would call her Angel as a name, not a title. I know all about the Hollywood legends created to obfuscate the origins of certain movie stars, but this one is a little thick for the early 1980s, when the book was published. (Granted, that was before the Internet, when the urban legend started circulating about Mel Gibson's supposed "total facial reconstruction" etc.)
I still can't quite figure out why Cunningham (the nom de plume of Howard Fast) chose a Japanese police detective as his protagonist. Masuto is a "nisei" who has never been to Japan; neither has the author had much to do with any real Asians, and it shows. There are very few references to Asian-American culture beyond the visit to the zendo and his low opinion of LA Japanese restaurants. His wife shows up in one scene and the kids are nowhere to be seen. The "Japanese proverb" his cousin quotes about Kati's participation in a "nisei consciousness raising group" sounds more Irish than Japanese: "When you salt the kettle too much, it's easy to spoil the stew," stew not being a real part of Japanese cuisine. I'm also a bit surprised that Fast/Cunningham wasn't aware that by 1982 "consciousness raising groups" were totally passé. There's a curious (or perhaps not) emphasis on Jewishness--perhaps not so surprising as the author is/was himself Jewish: Masuto's partner is Jewish, several of the wealthy suspects/witnesses are Jewish, the star's cook is a Holocaust survivor...and for some strange reason the racist chauffer refers to the African American maid as "that black Jew." Write what you know, I guess...but the insistent repetition of the word was curious.
There is a curious thread of robbery that goes nowhere--a kid breaks into the Masuto house in the first scene, two men try to mug Masuto on the street, and the Chief's car is stolen--none of these lead to anything, kind of like those filler scenes in a TV show.
An OK summer read that didn't leave me scratching my head.
I still can't quite figure out why Cunningham (the nom de plume of Howard Fast) chose a Japanese police detective as his protagonist. Masuto is a "nisei" who has never been to Japan; neither has the author had much to do with any real Asians, and it shows. There are very few references to Asian-American culture beyond the visit to the zendo and his low opinion of LA Japanese restaurants. His wife shows up in one scene and the kids are nowhere to be seen. The "Japanese proverb" his cousin quotes about Kati's participation in a "nisei consciousness raising group" sounds more Irish than Japanese: "When you salt the kettle too much, it's easy to spoil the stew," stew not being a real part of Japanese cuisine. I'm also a bit surprised that Fast/Cunningham wasn't aware that by 1982 "consciousness raising groups" were totally passé. There's a curious (or perhaps not) emphasis on Jewishness--perhaps not so surprising as the author is/was himself Jewish: Masuto's partner is Jewish, several of the wealthy suspects/witnesses are Jewish, the star's cook is a Holocaust survivor...and for some strange reason the racist chauffer refers to the African American maid as "that black Jew." Write what you know, I guess...but the insistent repetition of the word was curious.
There is a curious thread of robbery that goes nowhere--a kid breaks into the Masuto house in the first scene, two men try to mug Masuto on the street, and the Chief's car is stolen--none of these lead to anything, kind of like those filler scenes in a TV show.
An OK summer read that didn't leave me scratching my head.
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October 10, 2015Another of Howard Fast's pseudonymous detective novels featuring the Nisei detective Masao Masuto. They are okay, but nothing special, especially thirty years after they were written. Unlike many older mysteries, they don't have much of a period flavor--often the most enjoyable thing about a mystery written in the early 80s is the evocation of the time and place. However, neither Beverly Hills/Hollywood people culture nor middle-class Nisei life comes across as very specific to the time. The movie stars and their entourage could have appeared nearly unchanged in a mystery from the 1930s or 1950s, which I suspect relates to Howard Fast's generation--he was young in those decades and his style as a mystery writer reminds me of some of the mysteries from those decades. At times, as one might expect from a good leftist, Fast expresses some of his politics, but less through depiction of unpleasant rich people (leftist writers aren't alone in showing those) than through occasional descriptions of setting. "Inside, it displayed the slightly insane baronial overbuilding of a film star's house of the nineteen thirties... The living room was at least forty feet long..." These bits were rather enjoyable but surprisingly few.
The book is readable but I grew tired of characters pointing out that Masuto is Nisei (or mistaking him for Chinese, or whatever), especially given the lack of any real sense of what it might have been like to be Nisei from that place and time who would have been born in or just after World War II and the internment of Japanese Americans. Also, one of the final plot twists probably seemed daring and bizarre in the early 80s but in light of today's gender politics/debates comes across as rather sad and cruel. (I'm avoiding giving a spoiler here.)
The book is readable but I grew tired of characters pointing out that Masuto is Nisei (or mistaking him for Chinese, or whatever), especially given the lack of any real sense of what it might have been like to be Nisei from that place and time who would have been born in or just after World War II and the internment of Japanese Americans. Also, one of the final plot twists probably seemed daring and bizarre in the early 80s but in light of today's gender politics/debates comes across as rather sad and cruel. (I'm avoiding giving a spoiler here.)
November 26, 2022
The thing about Howard Fast's Masao Masuto mysteries is that they have no fat on them. In Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, and many other Golden Age novels you almost always have the spunky girl and the handsome guy who are somehow going to wind up together after Poirot or Queen or whoever solves the crime. Not so with Masuto: these books are focused squarely on the circumstances and events of the murder(s) and Masao's uncanny ability to hone in on the murderer(s) and how and why they did what they did.
In this case, the story begins with the kidnapping of Angel Barton, wife of a famous and popular movie star. Masao is dispatched to work with the movie star, Mike; but Mike refuses any police or FBI assistance in dealing with the kidnappers, which leads Masao to believe that something phony is going on. He is, of course, correct. Soon Masao has not one but three murders on his hands, a narrowing field of suspects, and no usable evidence to support his idea of what has occurred. An unusual ending--a nod to the Golden Age books I mentioned above--leads to a swift and satisfying conclusion.
There is less rumination on economics and class in this book than in previous Masuto outings; also less about Masao's family (though we do meet another Japanese American relative briefly). There is a good deal of interesting reflection on Masao's Zen Buddhist practice, which informs his approach to being a detective in interesting and sometimes conflicting ways.
A great, fast read. I am sorry that there's only one more Masao Masuto book left after this!
In this case, the story begins with the kidnapping of Angel Barton, wife of a famous and popular movie star. Masao is dispatched to work with the movie star, Mike; but Mike refuses any police or FBI assistance in dealing with the kidnappers, which leads Masao to believe that something phony is going on. He is, of course, correct. Soon Masao has not one but three murders on his hands, a narrowing field of suspects, and no usable evidence to support his idea of what has occurred. An unusual ending--a nod to the Golden Age books I mentioned above--leads to a swift and satisfying conclusion.
There is less rumination on economics and class in this book than in previous Masuto outings; also less about Masao's family (though we do meet another Japanese American relative briefly). There is a good deal of interesting reflection on Masao's Zen Buddhist practice, which informs his approach to being a detective in interesting and sometimes conflicting ways.
A great, fast read. I am sorry that there's only one more Masao Masuto book left after this!
May 30, 2011
Our protagonist, Masao Masuto, is a police detective in Beverly Hills. The police are informed that a movie star's wife has been kidnapped, but that he doesnt want the police involved in any way. The movie star and his wife both end up dead, and Masuto must investigate.
Masuto is an inscrutable Asian detective. In case we don't catch on, the author reminds us by having everyone he meets ask him if he's Nisei. He reinforces the stereotype by repeatedly telling his boss that he knows who did the crime. Or rather, that he knows, but he doesn't exactly know, so he can't explain anything yet. Most of the suspects in are successful people and they resent Masuto's presence. Every time he asks even the most innocuous question he is accused of harrassing them and they threaten to sue the city. This gets old very, very fast. Further, none of the characters in the book behave like real people, or even Hollywood people.
This is a very short novel, but tedious enough that it felt a lot longer.
Masuto is an inscrutable Asian detective. In case we don't catch on, the author reminds us by having everyone he meets ask him if he's Nisei. He reinforces the stereotype by repeatedly telling his boss that he knows who did the crime. Or rather, that he knows, but he doesn't exactly know, so he can't explain anything yet. Most of the suspects in are successful people and they resent Masuto's presence. Every time he asks even the most innocuous question he is accused of harrassing them and they threaten to sue the city. This gets old very, very fast. Further, none of the characters in the book behave like real people, or even Hollywood people.
This is a very short novel, but tedious enough that it felt a lot longer.
July 21, 2013
Under the name od E.V. Cunningham in my records
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