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Night Night, Sleep Tight
Finalist for the Mary Higgins Clark Award
From the award-winning author of There Was an Old Woman comes a riveting tale of domestic noir, infused with old Hollywood folklore and glamour, set in a town rife with egotism and backstabbing and where fame and infamy are often interchangeable.
Los Angeles 1986: When Deirdre Unger arrived in Beverly Hills to help her bitter, disappointed father sell his dilapidated house, she discovers his lifeless body floating face down in the swimming pool. At first, Deirdre assumes her father’s death was a tragic accident. But the longer she stays in town, the more she suspects that it is merely the third act in a story that has long been in the making.
The sudden re-surfacing of Deirdre’s childhood best friend Joelen Nichol—daughter of the legendary star Elenor “Bunny” Nichol—seems like more than a coincidence. Back in 1958, Joelen confessed to killing her movie star mother’s boyfriend. Deirdre happened to be at the Nichols house the night of the murder—which was also the night she suffered a personal tragedy of her own. Could all of these events be connected?
Her search to find answers forces Deirdre to confront a truth she has long refused to believe: beneath the slick veneer of Beverly Hills lie secrets that someone will kill to keep buried.
From the award-winning author of There Was an Old Woman comes a riveting tale of domestic noir, infused with old Hollywood folklore and glamour, set in a town rife with egotism and backstabbing and where fame and infamy are often interchangeable.
Los Angeles 1986: When Deirdre Unger arrived in Beverly Hills to help her bitter, disappointed father sell his dilapidated house, she discovers his lifeless body floating face down in the swimming pool. At first, Deirdre assumes her father’s death was a tragic accident. But the longer she stays in town, the more she suspects that it is merely the third act in a story that has long been in the making.
The sudden re-surfacing of Deirdre’s childhood best friend Joelen Nichol—daughter of the legendary star Elenor “Bunny” Nichol—seems like more than a coincidence. Back in 1958, Joelen confessed to killing her movie star mother’s boyfriend. Deirdre happened to be at the Nichols house the night of the murder—which was also the night she suffered a personal tragedy of her own. Could all of these events be connected?
Her search to find answers forces Deirdre to confront a truth she has long refused to believe: beneath the slick veneer of Beverly Hills lie secrets that someone will kill to keep buried.
287 pages, Hardcover
First published March 24, 2015
119 people are currently reading
2445 people want to read
About the author
Hallie Ephron
21 books560 followersHallie Ephron (http://hallieephron.com) is a New York Times bestselling author of suspense novels. Her last five have all been Mary Higgins Clark Award finalists.
Her (August 2019) Careful What You Wish For tells the story of a professional organizer married to man who can't pass a yard sale without stopping. In this respect, Hallie is writing from personal experience. Her husband is a champion yard sailor who's packed their basement, garage, and attic with his finds.
A STARRED review in Publisher's Weekly proclaimed it an "outstanding standalone." Reviewing it for TIME Magazine, Jamie Lee Curtis called it "thrilling and suspenseful." From Kirkus: "Ephron's tidy approach to stowing clues, arousing suspicions, keeping the chaos of the climax under control, then tying up loose ends makes her a professional organizer of this type of entertainment. In a word—neat."
Hallie's Never Tell a Lie was made into the Lifetime Movie Network film.
A book lover, she also wrote The Bibliophile's Devotional and 1001 Books for Every Mood. For twelve years she reviewed crime fiction for the Boston Globe. Her Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel (now in a revised/expanded edition) was an Edgar and Anthony award finalist. She teaches writing at writing conferences and workshops all around the world.
Hallie lives near Boston with her husband and has two fabulous daughters. She is the third of four writing Ephron sisters.
Her (August 2019) Careful What You Wish For tells the story of a professional organizer married to man who can't pass a yard sale without stopping. In this respect, Hallie is writing from personal experience. Her husband is a champion yard sailor who's packed their basement, garage, and attic with his finds.
A STARRED review in Publisher's Weekly proclaimed it an "outstanding standalone." Reviewing it for TIME Magazine, Jamie Lee Curtis called it "thrilling and suspenseful." From Kirkus: "Ephron's tidy approach to stowing clues, arousing suspicions, keeping the chaos of the climax under control, then tying up loose ends makes her a professional organizer of this type of entertainment. In a word—neat."
Hallie's Never Tell a Lie was made into the Lifetime Movie Network film.
A book lover, she also wrote The Bibliophile's Devotional and 1001 Books for Every Mood. For twelve years she reviewed crime fiction for the Boston Globe. Her Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel (now in a revised/expanded edition) was an Edgar and Anthony award finalist. She teaches writing at writing conferences and workshops all around the world.
Hallie lives near Boston with her husband and has two fabulous daughters. She is the third of four writing Ephron sisters.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 180 reviews
May 5, 2015
This is a pretty mundane mystery whose protagonist is Deidre Unger, a child of the Beverly Hills movie crowd, now living in San Diego. She returns home to find her screenwriter father drowned in his pool. The mystery develops around whether or not the death was accidental or foul play. The backstory seems to be based loosely on the actual murder of Johnny Stompanato by Cheryl Crane, the daughter of actress Lana Turner. Diedre is somehow involved in a similar murder and also may be implicated in her father’s death. She conveniently finds her father’s unfinished memoir that raises questions about the previous murder. Ephron includes some interesting twists but in general the plot seemed melodramatic and lacking in nuance. The cast of characters was flat and stereotypical (narcissistic movie actress, brutal boyfriend, faithful childhood friend, self-involved brother, devious Hollywood lawyer, childhood neighbor boy who conveniently is now an arson investigator with all kinds of investigative expertise, and new-age mother). Deirdre was permanently injured in an automobile accident and now uses a crutch. This plot element often seemed unrealistic as she jumped in and out of cars and climbed down steep embankments. A budding romance between a disabled woman and her childhood neighbor was a missed opportunity that ultimately was not handled well enough to be believable.
October 9, 2019
I liked the first book I read by this author - You'll Never Know, Dear - but I found I liked this one even more.
Two things stood out -- the old Hollywood was a lot of fun -- and -- setting it in the 1980s, the era before everyone had a smartphone in their pocket. Where someone had to run to call in a fire alarm, where you had to buy a disposable camera-- makes the mystery just a little harder for an amateur to investigate.
I'm not sure if I liked the ending - but I did enjoy the book.
Two things stood out -- the old Hollywood was a lot of fun -- and -- setting it in the 1980s, the era before everyone had a smartphone in their pocket. Where someone had to run to call in a fire alarm, where you had to buy a disposable camera-- makes the mystery just a little harder for an amateur to investigate.
I'm not sure if I liked the ending - but I did enjoy the book.
March 10, 2016
It was like reading a book based on an episode of Murder She Wrote. Perfect for any nursing home reader that can't have too much excitement, suspense, and intrigue due to cardiac ailments.
March 24, 2015
How could coming home to help your father get the house ready to sell turn into such a nightmare?
Deirdre dutifully said she would help her father with the house, but when she arrived, she found him at the bottom of the swimming pool. When did this happen? Who could have done this? Could she have done it and not realized it considering her past that she was just finding out about?
NIGHT, NIGHT SLEEP TIGHT was quite gripping and marvelously suspenseful. All of the things that were happening made me wonder if they were really by chance or if someone had planned them to frame Deirdre. After all, Deirdre's brother was sound asleep in their childhood home when she arrived. And what was it with folks from her past coming out of the woodwork and secrets about what actually happened the night of her car accident being revealed?
The characters were quite colorful with most of them on the untrustworthy side. They all seemed likely suspects in the murder and subsequently the garage fire. Deirdre seemed to be the only honest one and the one being blamed.
I really enjoyed NIGHT, NIGHT SLEEP TIGHT. The suspense began with the first few paragraphs, and it didn't stop.
NIGHT, NIGHT SLEEP TIGHT was a mystery and character analysis all rolled into one.
If you enjoy uncertainty, excitement, and tension at its finest, don't miss reading NIGHT, NIGHT SLEEP TIGHT.
NIGHT, NIGHT SLEEP TIGHT was ohhh so good and a book I couldn't wait to get back to. 5/5
This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review.
July 8, 2018
mildly entertaining who dun it!
Second time reading it because I did not remember reading it and got the book at a book sale.
Second time reading it because I did not remember reading it and got the book at a book sale.
December 6, 2019
This was just an OK read- murder/mystery type book- nothing all that special- a fast read-- maybe read it while you are waiting for your favorite books to come in at your library xx
April 27, 2015
Our story opens in 1985, with screenwriter Arthur Unger pondering his life....and trying to decide what to do next.
His brilliant career is behind him, beginning with all the award-winning scripts he had written with his partner/wife Gloria. His daughter Deirdre is still angry about the car accident that crippled her, and his son Henry seems to lack ambition. He spends his days lazing about, smoking various substances.
Arthur plans to sell his Beverly Hills home, but it probably won't bring a lot. It is smaller than the more trendy homes and is somewhat of a shambles. His daughter is coming up from San Diego to help get it ready for sale.
Before the night is over, Arthur will be dead...and when his daughter finds his body the next morning after she arrives, there will be many questions. And strangely, she cannot find the people who could substantiate her alibi.
"Night Night, Sleep Tight: A Novel of Suspense" is captivating, and it takes us back to Old Hollywood and the fabulous world of stars, like Bunny Nichol, whose abusive boyfriend was killed one night in 1963--presumably by her daughter Joelen. Mysteriously, Deirdre was there that night...the night she had her car accident.
Questions about the past seem to overwhelm them...and as Deirdre starts her own investigation, she discovers so many things that were hidden from her. Did a mysterious fire in Arthur's garage/office, two days after his death, somehow connect to the past and what happened to Arthur? And what is the meaning of the old photographs she discovers, along with a couple of other mysterious objects? Why did she find her mother's prayer beads in the office after the fire?
Deirdre has discovered her father's memoir in manuscript form, and as she reads, she realizes that her father's view of the past is "selective memory colored by an oversized ego," but that it does not detract from the fact that he and Gloria were in much demand in those early years. The prose stirs up memories for her, and some of them are good. But there are more unanswered questions as she reads further.
Uncovering the secrets and lies might not come fast enough, however, and this page-turning mystery kept me riveted, even as I savored the glow of Old Hollywood and its glamour. Misdirection and red herrings kept me from guessing what would ultimately happen. 5 stars.
His brilliant career is behind him, beginning with all the award-winning scripts he had written with his partner/wife Gloria. His daughter Deirdre is still angry about the car accident that crippled her, and his son Henry seems to lack ambition. He spends his days lazing about, smoking various substances.
Arthur plans to sell his Beverly Hills home, but it probably won't bring a lot. It is smaller than the more trendy homes and is somewhat of a shambles. His daughter is coming up from San Diego to help get it ready for sale.
Before the night is over, Arthur will be dead...and when his daughter finds his body the next morning after she arrives, there will be many questions. And strangely, she cannot find the people who could substantiate her alibi.
"Night Night, Sleep Tight: A Novel of Suspense" is captivating, and it takes us back to Old Hollywood and the fabulous world of stars, like Bunny Nichol, whose abusive boyfriend was killed one night in 1963--presumably by her daughter Joelen. Mysteriously, Deirdre was there that night...the night she had her car accident.
Questions about the past seem to overwhelm them...and as Deirdre starts her own investigation, she discovers so many things that were hidden from her. Did a mysterious fire in Arthur's garage/office, two days after his death, somehow connect to the past and what happened to Arthur? And what is the meaning of the old photographs she discovers, along with a couple of other mysterious objects? Why did she find her mother's prayer beads in the office after the fire?
Deirdre has discovered her father's memoir in manuscript form, and as she reads, she realizes that her father's view of the past is "selective memory colored by an oversized ego," but that it does not detract from the fact that he and Gloria were in much demand in those early years. The prose stirs up memories for her, and some of them are good. But there are more unanswered questions as she reads further.
Uncovering the secrets and lies might not come fast enough, however, and this page-turning mystery kept me riveted, even as I savored the glow of Old Hollywood and its glamour. Misdirection and red herrings kept me from guessing what would ultimately happen. 5 stars.
June 25, 2016
I am normally a fan of this author but there were a lot of inconsistencies in this book that made it very irritating.
December 5, 2017
I kind of saw the ending coming, I wanted to like this book more. The cover was interesting and I enjoyed how it started. However, it kind of dragged and then it was predictable.
Meh
Meh
May 12, 2023
I like Hallie Ephron’s books, but couldn’t get through this one… DNF
November 14, 2024
Easy read but I liked it a lot! Followed the perfect murder mystery formula. Need to read more.
May 31, 2025
A page turning mystery that recalls the glamor of old Hollywood and a generation of Beverly Hills kids who grew up in its shadows.
January 22, 2020
Hallie Ephron’s book Night Night, Sleep Tight delivers consuming drama and spellbinding suspense in a story that has its beginnings in the glittering Hollywood atmosphere of the early 1960s. A murder in 1985 sparks the revealing of secrets that have been bottled up for two decades, secrets that shaped lives and destroyed relationships. The author was herself a child of these Hollywood days, with parents who were script writers. The kernel incident of this fictional story is the true life event of Lana Turner’s daughter stabbing and killing Lana’s boyfriend in their Beverly Hills home. Hallie’s childhood home was near the place of this tragedy, so it is with complete authenticity that the time and place of the story is imparted to the reader. How Hallie Ephron takes the real life kernel and develops it into a layered story with threads of imagination spinning purpose and direction is brilliant. She knows how to make the fantastic real and put the reader right in the middle of the setting and story. I always feel so connected to the characters and their plights when I read a book by Hallie. It’s no surprise that this author has written a non-fiction book on how to write mysteries.
Deidre Unger is returning to her childhood home of Beverly Hills to help her father, a once successful Hollywood script writer, ready his house to be sold. With her parents long ago divorced and her older brother rather sketchy in his responsibilities, this task has fallen to Deidre. It’s 1985 and twenty years past her nightmarish accident that left her crippled, and returning to the scene is anything but pleasurable. It becomes even less so when Deidre arrives and finds her father floating dead in his swimming pool. As the police dig deeper into the “accident,” it is soon ruled murder, and Deidre is being questioned closely about the timing of her arrival. Appointed in her father’s will as his literary executor, Deidre begins to uncover puzzling information about the past and the night that saw glamorous actress “Bunny” Nicol’s boyfriend murdered by her teenage daughter, Deidre’s friend Joelen. Deidre had been in the Nicol’s house that night, but her memory is hazy due to a car accident she was in that same night, an accident which left her life forever altered. That the long ago night and her father’s death could be connected in any way seems implausible to Deidre, but therein lies the story of greed, secrecy, and betrayal that is so intriguing.
Start early in the day on this book, or plan to stay up late. You will want to keep reading straight to the end, as the pages practically turn themselves in the story’s well-structured flow.
Deidre Unger is returning to her childhood home of Beverly Hills to help her father, a once successful Hollywood script writer, ready his house to be sold. With her parents long ago divorced and her older brother rather sketchy in his responsibilities, this task has fallen to Deidre. It’s 1985 and twenty years past her nightmarish accident that left her crippled, and returning to the scene is anything but pleasurable. It becomes even less so when Deidre arrives and finds her father floating dead in his swimming pool. As the police dig deeper into the “accident,” it is soon ruled murder, and Deidre is being questioned closely about the timing of her arrival. Appointed in her father’s will as his literary executor, Deidre begins to uncover puzzling information about the past and the night that saw glamorous actress “Bunny” Nicol’s boyfriend murdered by her teenage daughter, Deidre’s friend Joelen. Deidre had been in the Nicol’s house that night, but her memory is hazy due to a car accident she was in that same night, an accident which left her life forever altered. That the long ago night and her father’s death could be connected in any way seems implausible to Deidre, but therein lies the story of greed, secrecy, and betrayal that is so intriguing.
Start early in the day on this book, or plan to stay up late. You will want to keep reading straight to the end, as the pages practically turn themselves in the story’s well-structured flow.
September 30, 2015
I'll be generous and give this two stars since I read it mostly in the middle of the night while unable to sleep due to having thrown out my back, so I might possibly have felt more kindly towards it if I read it in under more pleasant circumstances. I had plucked it off the new books shelf of the library because it is written by Nora Ephron's sister. (which could also have played a tiny role in getting it published in the first place). This book is very...simple? If I was a creative writing teacher I would have said, good effort. Meaning it was competent, no blaring errors (although remember it was the middle of the night, I could have missed something). But the characters are pretty run of the mill,some bordering on cliche, no sentences will be reread with wonder at how she could put those words together so beautifully ("Deirdre took a deep breath." Next page "Deirdre took a deep shuddering breath.") The story starts out as a rip-off of the Lana Turner/Johnny Stompanado/Cheryl Crane mess with a fictional movie star (I've always hated fictional movie stars, I have no idea why) I didn't guess the ending, but there weren't many clues and a number of Oh I'm sure moments getting there. And there was a Perfect Man for our heroine at the end, of course there was.
(one plus...it takes place in 1985 Los Angeles, and since I live there I appreciated some of the old place references, like CC Brown's on Hollywood Blvd, they DID serve their sundaes in cold metal dishes and bring you extra hot fudge. But that is a reasonably obscure "plus", I know.)
(one plus...it takes place in 1985 Los Angeles, and since I live there I appreciated some of the old place references, like CC Brown's on Hollywood Blvd, they DID serve their sundaes in cold metal dishes and bring you extra hot fudge. But that is a reasonably obscure "plus", I know.)
Read
November 14, 2016Since I had recently attended a workshop that Hallie Ephron did on Voice and Point of View at the Surrey International Writers Conference, I wanted to read one of her works. The story moved well and the ending surprised me, which is what you'd expect from any clever mystery writer.
Soon after I started reading it the story seemed vaguely familiar. Like the author, when I was a child, I had heard of a murder that a Hollywood star was involved in. Ephron reveals in her author's note that that same story had inspired her to write this novel.
Ephron, whose own parents were Hollywood screenwriters, sprinkles celebrity names throughout and for any old-time movie lover, those parts are fun to read. Night Night, Sleep Tight was a quick read. It's been nominated for an Edgar mystery award.
Soon after I started reading it the story seemed vaguely familiar. Like the author, when I was a child, I had heard of a murder that a Hollywood star was involved in. Ephron reveals in her author's note that that same story had inspired her to write this novel.
Ephron, whose own parents were Hollywood screenwriters, sprinkles celebrity names throughout and for any old-time movie lover, those parts are fun to read. Night Night, Sleep Tight was a quick read. It's been nominated for an Edgar mystery award.
April 5, 2015
I stayed up until 2 a.m. last night reading Night Night, Sleep Tight. What a wonderful book! Every relationship--brother/sister, daughter/father, children/family friend--felt real and compelling. There was a terrific sense of old-time Hollywood with all its glamour and secrets. I felt like I was being taken on an insider's tour of a world that, for better or worse, no longer exists in Hollywood. The pacing never flagged. The ending was a complete surprise. I was never quite how the pieces fit together until the end and yet it was all believable and compelling.
August 13, 2015
I was all ready to give this book a higher rating and then I got to the end. What was a well-written suspense novel, complete with enough intrigue, mystery and characters with something to hide that I never once felt confident about who the killer was took a turn at the ending. The author threw it all out the window for a quick ending that left me feeling like I had done a day's worth of work only to have the paycheck bounce. I didn't get the payout that I was seeking from the ending and it left me disappointed about what should have been a really great book.
December 16, 2014
Deirdre Unger returns to her father's Hollywood home, and finds his body in the pool. The cops descend upon her family, stirring up old memories and questions about the night of a terrible accident that changed her life for good. Ephron is a marvelous, seamless writer and a master at spooling out suspense. Readers of Mary Higgins Clark, Lisa Gardner, and BA Shapiro will love this multilayered Hollywood thriller.
March 12, 2016
A 2015 staff favorite recommended by Jane, who says, "Ephron has written a suspenseful page-turner inspired by the 1958 stabbing of Lana Turner's lover. The old Hollywood setting rings true, since Ephron grew up there, the daughter of a screenwriting team.''
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March 27, 2015
I was lucky enough to have been a First Read Winner of this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved the characters and the storyline and it captured my attention from page one. As usual I have read way passed my bedtime because I just needed to find out how it would end. This was my first book by Hallie Ephron but it certainly won't be my last, great read, very entertaining.
March 26, 2015
Loved this book!! If it wasn't for the fact that I had to work (& sleep) I probably would have read it all in one sitting.
I loved that it was set in the 1980's so there wasn't a lot of the modern conveniences that we now have (cell phones, etc.)
It kept me guessing till the end of who actually killed Arthur.
**I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway***
I loved that it was set in the 1980's so there wasn't a lot of the modern conveniences that we now have (cell phones, etc.)
It kept me guessing till the end of who actually killed Arthur.
**I received this book in a Goodreads Giveaway***
December 15, 2014
LOVED this book. Gorgeous writing, atmospheric old-Hollywood details, and deftly described 80s life in Beverly Hills. A thinking reader's mystery -- great book club book that will have you talking and thinking about it for quite a while. Don't miss this one!
April 4, 2015
Solid historical mystery set in the 1960s and 1980s. Hard to believe that's considered historical!
November 12, 2015
A Good mystery, lots of twists and turns.... Did not anticipate the ending. I like those kind of mysteries.
July 24, 2022
I hate it when a book is a full 5 stars for most of it, then suddenly it plummets. This was a book I'd think about when I wasn't reading it, wondering what would happen, which rarely happens.
Then... just finished to be done. Not the ending I'd have liked. I like my murderers to be held accountable, not given a do-over on a Hollywood career. I'd like my child rapers (the boy was underage, and that was not okay even in the 80's) to be jailed.
What a disappointment Arthur was, paying and paying (they call it a "trust" for his grandchild, but really it was hush money), when his son would have been let off on self-defense. Poor Joelen, serving time in juvenile detention (where it "wasn't so bad." Perhaps people there actually cared, which her mother obviously didn't) for a murder she did not commit!
Oh, is this all suppose to make us think, "That's the way it is with those stars...."?
In reality, the payoffs and lies would unravel at some point, and Deirdre would be able to prove her alibi.
I'm guessing the money for the sale of her father's edited (truths deleted, lies inserted) autobiography was worth more than bring her father's murderer to justice. Same goes for her brother. Despicable people. Oh, is that just the way it is with those Hollywood people?
Throw in magic tricks and disappearing knives, and it got just so overly dramatic. If Henry has a son 21, and he was 16 when his rapist was pregnant, then Henry and Deirdre are way older than they act. I had no idea they were nearing 40.
Then... just finished to be done. Not the ending I'd have liked. I like my murderers to be held accountable, not given a do-over on a Hollywood career. I'd like my child rapers (the boy was underage, and that was not okay even in the 80's) to be jailed.
What a disappointment Arthur was, paying and paying (they call it a "trust" for his grandchild, but really it was hush money), when his son would have been let off on self-defense. Poor Joelen, serving time in juvenile detention (where it "wasn't so bad." Perhaps people there actually cared, which her mother obviously didn't) for a murder she did not commit!
Oh, is this all suppose to make us think, "That's the way it is with those stars...."?
In reality, the payoffs and lies would unravel at some point, and Deirdre would be able to prove her alibi.
I'm guessing the money for the sale of her father's edited (truths deleted, lies inserted) autobiography was worth more than bring her father's murderer to justice. Same goes for her brother. Despicable people. Oh, is that just the way it is with those Hollywood people?
Throw in magic tricks and disappearing knives, and it got just so overly dramatic. If Henry has a son 21, and he was 16 when his rapist was pregnant, then Henry and Deirdre are way older than they act. I had no idea they were nearing 40.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 27, 2018
This would have four stars, maybe five, if not for the ending. I was really engrossed in this from the first chapter, and I loved the writing style. Plus a disabled protagonist? That's refreshing and necessary. But the ending drew me up short. It just felt like a trick. Like I read the whole book just for it to come of nothing. The truth can be great to know but if you're not going to do anything with it it seems like a giant waste of time to even discover. I'm glad Deirdre got her questioned answered but it just felt like she experienced this entire emotional upheaval for the sake of the book. Literally, nothing came of any of it. She's got money now and a boyfriend, and that's all well and good, but don't make me as a reader waste my time reading this if it really is going to just end with the bad guys winning. I don't need a completely happy ending, but this just felt like a joke. Up till that last chapter, I was strapped in and loving every minute of it, but the ending left such a taste in my mouth. I will definitely give this author another chance because she knows how to spin a yarn, but I'm hoping her next foray has a better ending. Don't need "feel good" just something that leaves me feeling pleased I read it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2019
Good book with a disappointing ending. I enjoyed Ephron's main character, Deirdre, finding her instantly likeable and her interactions with other people believable and interesting. The immediacy of her description really pulled me into the story.
I'm not comfortable with the ending of this book, which can't really be discussed without spoilers. The choice Deirdre makes doesn't seem consistent with the character presented at the outset, and leaves me feeling a little as I would if a real life friend disappointed me in a similar situation. Perhaps people really do sell their souls in Hollywood (and elsewhere) on a regular basis and this is meant to be a variation on that story, but it affronts this reader's sense of story-telling integrity, now you see the really nice girl, now you don't.
I'm not comfortable with the ending of this book, which can't really be discussed without spoilers. The choice Deirdre makes doesn't seem consistent with the character presented at the outset, and leaves me feeling a little as I would if a real life friend disappointed me in a similar situation. Perhaps people really do sell their souls in Hollywood (and elsewhere) on a regular basis and this is meant to be a variation on that story, but it affronts this reader's sense of story-telling integrity, now you see the really nice girl, now you don't.
May 20, 2023
Good story
Interesting choice of time periods, good characters, and a plot that keeps you curious. Just be ready to read about a disabled character from the perspective of an author who seems not to have researched that experience. Everywhere she goes, Deirdre crutches crutchily along, dragging her foot as she carefully crutchcrutchcrutchcrutchcrutch. Any disabled person can tell you: we’re not constantly thinking about our devices. They become part of you. I appreciate that Deirdre’s the heroine of the story, she does a lot more things than having a crutch, and the author avoids the stereotypic pitfalls, but I do wish she tried a little harder to get into the experience of someone injured years and years before, and didn’t keep centering her crutch and her unresolved grief for her mobility.
Interesting choice of time periods, good characters, and a plot that keeps you curious. Just be ready to read about a disabled character from the perspective of an author who seems not to have researched that experience. Everywhere she goes, Deirdre crutches crutchily along, dragging her foot as she carefully crutchcrutchcrutchcrutchcrutch. Any disabled person can tell you: we’re not constantly thinking about our devices. They become part of you. I appreciate that Deirdre’s the heroine of the story, she does a lot more things than having a crutch, and the author avoids the stereotypic pitfalls, but I do wish she tried a little harder to get into the experience of someone injured years and years before, and didn’t keep centering her crutch and her unresolved grief for her mobility.
March 8, 2022
An insider's look at Hollywood and its mansions and movie stars. A daughter returns to find her father face down in the swimming pool. Then a fire breaks out in the garage. Deirdre is determined to find out who killed her father. It goes back to events that transpired one night when she crashes a star-studded party at her best friend's home. The plot held my interest here and there but then it became all too predictable. The "hints" the author plants along the way are so obvious that by the end, I was yawning when the real killer was revealed.
May 17, 2017
Inspired by a famous, high profile Hollywood murder mystery, this story takes you back to Beverly Hills as it used to be. As the mystery sucks you in, you can't help but try to figure out who really did it. Who committed the original murder? And who committed the one that draws all the players back together? That being said, I liked this book, right up until the end. Which left me wanting more. Justice. Resolution. Answers. Real answers. The ending didn't give me that.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 180 reviews