The Secret of Mary Miles Minter’s Mother is about the mysterious murder of silent film director William Desmond Taylor back in 1922 and how David and Elizabeth Williams, a multimillionaire brother and sister who happened to live on their magnificent estate of Tarnhelm near Hollywood, actually solved it. Traveling to Egypt, they join an archeological dig at Abu Simbel, where they are threatened with imminent death for a murder they never committed. They partake of some mysterious "Atlantis Tea" (which produces a rather unexpected and humorous side effect), and in the process learn the truth concerning Atlantis, as well as the true origins of Egypt, its gods and goddesses, and the Illuminati. Then they travel back to Hollywood, where they begin to unravel the mystery of William Desmond Taylor’s murder by having a very unique interview with silent film star Mary Miles Minter. They throw a toga party to end all toga parties at their mansion, partake in a secret Midnight grave robbery in a Hollywood cemetery, and engage in some "ghostly sleuthing" through secret passageways beneath a film set in the California desert. They rescue a "live mummy" and finally become involved in an ancient Egyptian temple ceremony to (literally) raise the dead! In the process, our hero and heroine finally get to the bottom of this seemingly unsolvable mystery once and for all, and with the help of silent film friends like Cecil B. DeMille, bring the true perpetrators to justice with some incredibly hilarious results!

Brad Back received a degree in Speech Communications with an emphasis in Radio, TV and Film from Moorhead State University in 1984. He also took Speech 280 (Film History) as well as a number of Speech 499 level classes on the subject of film history, and in the process fell deeply in love with the time period of Silent Film History, which lasted from 1908 to 1928 in Hollywood. He wrote a 2,000-page chronological timeline of silent film history for his Advanced Cinema Studies class in 1982, and has since been both an avid reader and researcher on the subject. He has also written other David Williams mysteries, as well as a book which he believes tells the truth concerning the Kennedy assassination. The David Williams mystery series takes place in the Hollywood of the 1920s and brings this time period to life as only the eccentric David and Elizabeth Williams can!

The year was 1922. Charlie Chaplin, that world famous comedian in an untold number of silent Hollywood films, had his chauffeur park his limousine on the edge of Highway #1 overlooking the Pacific Ocean. From here the great one paused for a moment and surveyed his destination. The estate of Tarnhelm was an absolute wonder to behold. Its entrance was sided by two tall square brick pedestals, upon which were two very handsome and pronounced white marble unicorns, which stood on their hind legs, and could be seen to be pawing rather vehemently at the darkening February sky. There was a tall red brick wall that encircled all one hundred acres of the magnificent property.

At the end of a long and winding cobblestone road, stood a huge three-story Victorian mansion, Gothic in appearance. Standing majestically over its domain in a rather haunting manner, this structure protected all that it surveyed.