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Stop Over
A searing novel about the clash of Hollywood glitz and small-town hypocrisy, back in print for the first time on over 60 years.
When the good people of Greenleaf, Pennsylvania condemed Fred Nichols' mother for her adultery, and wept insincerely over her grave, he left town in disgust and wound up in Hollywood, where he remade himself as a fixer for the stars. Now tan and rich, he's making his fat living keeping a rock star actor Tommy Hatcher's wild lifestyle and insatiable desires from creating headlines. But now Tommy's new movie, The Cool and the Haunted, is shooting in Greenleaf, and Fred will have to confront his past to protect the superstar...and save himself.
The novel was published under the title The Star-Cross System in the UK. Morton Cooper Feinberg (1925-2004) was a prolific novelist, ghostwriter, and journalist who wrote over 50 novels under his own name and others, including Mike Crane, Mark Clements, Max Carter and even Mavis Cromwell.
When the good people of Greenleaf, Pennsylvania condemed Fred Nichols' mother for her adultery, and wept insincerely over her grave, he left town in disgust and wound up in Hollywood, where he remade himself as a fixer for the stars. Now tan and rich, he's making his fat living keeping a rock star actor Tommy Hatcher's wild lifestyle and insatiable desires from creating headlines. But now Tommy's new movie, The Cool and the Haunted, is shooting in Greenleaf, and Fred will have to confront his past to protect the superstar...and save himself.
The novel was published under the title The Star-Cross System in the UK. Morton Cooper Feinberg (1925-2004) was a prolific novelist, ghostwriter, and journalist who wrote over 50 novels under his own name and others, including Mike Crane, Mark Clements, Max Carter and even Mavis Cromwell.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 16, 2024
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March 4, 2026
Cooper penned some 56 dime novels, working often from early morning to late at night, vowing to get his family out of the stark Washington Heights apartment. In 1967, at 42, he hit the jackpot, selling three million copies of The King. Stop Over, published in 1960 as an Avon original, has been republished by Cutting Edge with a passionate new cover.
Fred Nichols left small town Greenleaf fifteen years earlier for the bright lights of Hollywood and never looked back. Tommy Hatcher, a twenty-year old teen idol, is the latest sensation and he’s from Greenleaf too. Nichols, a writer, is assigned to play nursemaid to Tommy when he returns to film his latest movie in Greenleaf. He’s got to keep the million-dollar meal ticket away from booze and broads, but that’s no easy task as Tommy is a magnet for every loose floozy in a hundred miles, whether that’s including his manager Sam’s wife or the local tramp who is going to get Tommy to marry her or scream rape. Either way, she’ll get paid, she thinks.
Told from Fred’s point of view, we get his awkward return to his hometown, including his attempt to rekindle things with his high school sweetheart, Jeanne, who now is widowed and a respectable social worker known by everyone in this small town.
The story is slow in parts, but does end in a wild crescendo.
Fred Nichols left small town Greenleaf fifteen years earlier for the bright lights of Hollywood and never looked back. Tommy Hatcher, a twenty-year old teen idol, is the latest sensation and he’s from Greenleaf too. Nichols, a writer, is assigned to play nursemaid to Tommy when he returns to film his latest movie in Greenleaf. He’s got to keep the million-dollar meal ticket away from booze and broads, but that’s no easy task as Tommy is a magnet for every loose floozy in a hundred miles, whether that’s including his manager Sam’s wife or the local tramp who is going to get Tommy to marry her or scream rape. Either way, she’ll get paid, she thinks.
Told from Fred’s point of view, we get his awkward return to his hometown, including his attempt to rekindle things with his high school sweetheart, Jeanne, who now is widowed and a respectable social worker known by everyone in this small town.
The story is slow in parts, but does end in a wild crescendo.
Displaying 1 of 1 review