The Contractor

Korean War veteran Kip Jory was determined to follow his dream. But it may have been a mistake. Directly after his military discharge from the Navy Kip used his G. I. education benefits to study acting and film making. Several years later he finds himself hopelessly stuck in Philadelphia using his photographic skills to eke out a living as a Private Investigator for sleazy divorce attorneys. Kip's chance to turn his life around comes about the day a woman of means hires him to search for her missing father; a potentially decade old crime which the police consider a cold case. This search for the truth behind this blind alley pursuit is cross-stitched with backstories concerning the lives of a once famous stage and screen actor, a number of members of various organized criminal organizations and two women of different generations. It's from these two women that Kip learns the meaning of love and commitment. Being a Robert Oster novel, The Contractor is peppered with humor, satire and a mix of real and fake quotations and fictional historical events.