Hollywood Gothic

by Thomas Gifford

Good reading copy. Some wear from normal use and age.

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1979

About the author

Thomas Eugene Gifford was a best-selling American author of thriller novels. He gained international fame with the suspense novel The Wind Chill Factor and later with the Vatican-based thriller The Assassini .

After graduating from Harvard he moved to the Twin Cities, MN where he and his wife, Kari Sandven, had two children (Thomas Eaton, Rachel Claire). Divorced in 1969, he went on to marry Camille D'Ambrose, a local actress. They moved to Los Angeles for a few years, then returned to Orono, MN. Novels continued to flow from his fountain pen through the years. Gifford eventually moved to New York--a city he loved whose people were of infinite importance to him.

In 1996, he turned his attention to renovating his childhood home in Dubuque, spending more time in Iowa than New York during his last years. He embraced the community of Dubuque, as they embraced their prodigal son. Featured in the Dubuque Telegraph Herald, Gifford recounted his every day occurrences, from learning the pleasure of getting a dog (Katie Maxwell, the Scottie) to peeves and pleasures of the town.

Diagnosed with terminal cancer in February, 2000, Gifford spent his remaining months reading, watching old movies, and chatting with friends and family. He passed away on an unseasonably warm Halloween, just as the ghosts and goblins started their tricks.

Gifford lived life large, had friends throughout the world, and lived life by his favorite credo--we're not here for a long time; we're here for a good time.

Gifford also published under the names Dana Clarins and Thomas Maxwell.

Reviews

[Armin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Für mich bislang Giffords bester Thriller, Protector fällt in eine andere Kategorie.
Der Auftakt samt Notlandung und Überleben in einer Behindertengruppe im Schneesturm ist geradezu genial, auch die Rückkehr in ein LA., dessen Nobelvierterl gerade so nach und nach den Hang herrunterrutschen. Grotesker Höhepunkt ist der Besuch der beiden Clowntherapeuten im Kostüm im Schwitzbad des Doppelmörders.
Wie jedes mal bei Gifford gibt es viel verschenktes Potenzial, typisch auch die vielen Zitate aus Filmklassikern und Jazz-Standards, die er wohl für Allgemeinbildung hält. Kein Lesehindernis, allerdings hat es Lübbe bei anderen Büchern von ihm (Protector, Exitus) besser gemacht und einen Kommentar mitgeliefert.
Das Buch ist in den 70er geschrieben und hat, in Zeiten von CSI und anderen Laborratten-Serien und Gesichtsscannern fast schon den nostalgischen Charme von Mord im Pfarrhaus, auch wenn es unvergleichlich viel besser ist.

[Timothy Juhl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not really going to review this book, but I am going to tell the story of finding this book in a Dubuque, Iowa thrift store about three weeks ago. I only picked it up because of the title and a quick glance at the inside blurb made it out to be a mystery with Hollywood as the backdrop. It was also written in 1979.

I love books with some Hollywood history mixed into the storyline. I don't like mystery-thrillers, and this one didn't make me want to read more. And I probably won't unless forced. The writing in this was tepid, the kind of pot-boiler language readers probably expected in mysteries circa 1979. The characters were right out of Central Casting: the fortune teller in her cape and gaudy jewelry, the studio head and his ineffectual son, the hired gun, even the group of lost school kids (and I won't go into the language that was acceptable to describe mentally-challenged individuals, or the slang used for gays!). It was 1979 after all.

But this is the story of Thomas Gifford, the author. I would have DNF'd this early on, but I'd had to Google a curious reference to Mary Travers (Peter, Paul, and Mary) and then I googled the author. Gifford was born in Dubuque, Iowa and grew up and graduated high school there! I spend one day a week in Dubuque and I was immediately fascinated in Gifford's story. He would graduate from Harvard, move to Minnesota and sell textbooks, then spent time working in Hollywood. He wrote several mysteries under his own name, and several others under two pseudonyms. He and his wife would move back to Dubuque in 1996, where he taught a couple of courses at Loras College. In 2000, he died on Halloween from cancer. Other than a citation on a website site identified as 'Dubuque: The Encylopedia,' Gifford has been forgotten. I could not locate a gravesite, but I want to check city records for the house address, just to see where he lived. I'll check the library in Dubuque to see if there are any old newspaper clippings.

I have no intention of ever reading another Gifford book, his style was perfect for the traveler who grabbed a book from the spinner rack in the airport gift shop just before boarding their TWA flight to Los Angeles or New York or some other long distance flight. All the Hollywood references, places and actors, are long dead now or the places made over into parking lots. There are some venerable Hollywood sites that remain, but even Mary Travers and Regis Philbin, the most current celebs mentioned in the book, have been dead for a while now.

I probably would have donated this book to our local library book sale, but after discovering the Iowa connection and my affinity to Dubuque, it will go into my special collection (it's worth nothing of value, but it has a story of its own, and sometimes, that's just as valuable as money).

[Gary R Borman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Never a dull moment

This would make a great movie or series on Netflix. So much intriguing plots and twist that you have to keep reading

[Bob Box · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in 1980. Convicted of murder a screenwriter gets a chance to clear his name.

[Ethan Nahté · Rating 2 out of 5]

Screenwriter Toby Challis is convicted of killing his tramp of a wife, Goldie. As he is being flown by private charter, along with another criminal, to wherever he is to be incarcerated, the plane goes down in a storm and kills everyone but Challis. He comes to on a mountainside surrounded by a group of special needs children who have gotten lost after their scout leader disappears. Then, as luck would have it, the group comes across a winter getaway occupied by a woman named Morgan. She wants to help Challis to discover who killed Goldie so she can write a novel because she is infatuated with crime and mystery novels.

Long story short, the novel has Challis chasing many leads and revealing his identity to several people, all whom hopes he gets away and, even when threatening them, refuse to turn him in because it's Hollywood and they have more important things to focus on. One important even that is consistently happening throughout the story is the never-ending rain and the mudslides as houses fall off the cliffs. The result near the end of the novel has some importance and is of use to Challis, but is a bit of a lackluster climax after such a long build-up.

Morgan and Challis also fall in love, even though she gets upset with him as he becomes more and more violent in his effort to discover the truth. Despite her intervening in his attacks and disagreeing with him, she falls in love. Nothing is ever mentioned again about the novel she wants to write. Challis finally discovers the truth behind more than one murder as his sleuth work leads to more killings all to hide the truth or to obtain it for blackmail purposes. (He also borrows a friend's car and nothing is ever said about him returning the car or if he just keeps it.)

The book began with some promise and then slowly became weighed down in details that lead to some obvious conclusions with the exception of maybe Goldie's killer, but then again the signs are there with the character guilty of the deed, so maybe the answer will be obvious to others.

At least Gifford makes most of the characters feel like real people who are angry, lost, or confused, not to mention how

So, an okay read over a weekend then pass it on to a friend or trade it in. Not something that I would keep on my shelf to read again.

[hcelvis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anfangs etwas langatmig entwickelt sich Skandal immer mehr zu einem wirklich spannenden Krimi.

[Troy Soos · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was unreadable.