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The Cutting Room: A Novel of Suspense
Like the hero in a classic Hitchcock thriller, the innocent movie buff at the center of this witty and suspenseful novel finds his ordinary life suddenly transformed when he’s plunged into a harrowing game of intrigue, duplicity, and danger. Spurred into a frantic race from New York to Hollywood to Barcelona and back, he’ll encounter enough hairpin twists, shocking surprises, white-knuckle tension, and sinister characters to give even the master of suspense himself a serious case of vertigo. But in this scenario, the mayhem and murder are all too real.
Self-proclaimed movie geek and divorced thirtysomething Roy Milano lives alone in a cramped Manhattan apartment, toiling as a freelancer to make ends meet. It’s a life perfectly suited to the creator of Trivial Man , Roy’s self-published newsletter—filled with tidbits of little-known Tinseltown lore for the delight of other fringe-dwelling cinemaphiles. And it’s a tantalizing phone call from one such kindred spirit that thrusts Roy headlong into his waking noir nightmare.
“I’ve got The Magnificent Ambersons ,” declares Alan Gilbert, host of a homemade cable-TV show about the silver screen, who now claims to possess the rarest of the the long-lost and never-released complete print of Orson Welles’s classic follow-up to Citizen Kane . But when Roy arrives at his fellow movie maven’s abode to sneak a peek at celluloid history, the front door is ominously open, Alan Gilbert is dead, and The Magnificent Ambersons is nowhere in sight. Even though the cops arrest a local drug addict for the murder, Roy knows they’re wrong—because the theft of the movie masterpiece points to a different kind of junkie. The kind Roy knows only too well . . . and the kind he’s certain only he can catch.
But Roy Milano is no Sam Spade, even if he does run into more gun-toting goons, sucker punches, and double-crosses than Bogey on a busy day. And the suspects prove to be anything but usual—including a bodybuilding film fanatic obsessed with bizarre rumors about an A-list actress, a rotund reporter who holds Hollywood in thrall via red-hot Internet dispatches from his parents’ basement, and a starstruck street punk with a thousand voices. And then there’s the transatlantic love triangle that finds Roy caught between his very own eager Gal Friday and a sultry Spanish siren with a stunning secret. But when the bodies start to fall faster than a box-office bomb, Roy must cut to the chase in his perilous quest to save the Holy Grail of cinema—and unmask a killer—before everything fades to black.
From the Hardcover edition.
Self-proclaimed movie geek and divorced thirtysomething Roy Milano lives alone in a cramped Manhattan apartment, toiling as a freelancer to make ends meet. It’s a life perfectly suited to the creator of Trivial Man , Roy’s self-published newsletter—filled with tidbits of little-known Tinseltown lore for the delight of other fringe-dwelling cinemaphiles. And it’s a tantalizing phone call from one such kindred spirit that thrusts Roy headlong into his waking noir nightmare.
“I’ve got The Magnificent Ambersons ,” declares Alan Gilbert, host of a homemade cable-TV show about the silver screen, who now claims to possess the rarest of the the long-lost and never-released complete print of Orson Welles’s classic follow-up to Citizen Kane . But when Roy arrives at his fellow movie maven’s abode to sneak a peek at celluloid history, the front door is ominously open, Alan Gilbert is dead, and The Magnificent Ambersons is nowhere in sight. Even though the cops arrest a local drug addict for the murder, Roy knows they’re wrong—because the theft of the movie masterpiece points to a different kind of junkie. The kind Roy knows only too well . . . and the kind he’s certain only he can catch.
But Roy Milano is no Sam Spade, even if he does run into more gun-toting goons, sucker punches, and double-crosses than Bogey on a busy day. And the suspects prove to be anything but usual—including a bodybuilding film fanatic obsessed with bizarre rumors about an A-list actress, a rotund reporter who holds Hollywood in thrall via red-hot Internet dispatches from his parents’ basement, and a starstruck street punk with a thousand voices. And then there’s the transatlantic love triangle that finds Roy caught between his very own eager Gal Friday and a sultry Spanish siren with a stunning secret. But when the bodies start to fall faster than a box-office bomb, Roy must cut to the chase in his perilous quest to save the Holy Grail of cinema—and unmask a killer—before everything fades to black.
From the Hardcover edition.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
About the author
Laurence Klavan
32 books12 followersPlaywright, novelist, and librettist Laurence Klavan is the author of a number of plays, as well as of mystery novels centering around Hollywood.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
February 23, 2009
The bits of movie trivia and the relationship of the two main characters were the only really interesting parts of this book for me.The story line got pretty far off line at times,I thought. There were some pretty weak moments also. If you're going to go through the trouble of killing someone for something wouldn't you unzip the bag to ascertain the desired item was there, rather than just taking off with it and having to do it all over in the next chapter? I'm not too sharp either, turns out I was really looking for another book with the same title so will be headed back to the library.
June 11, 2018
It was... fine. The plot was really far-fetched. Like, ridiculous. Especially just the sheer number of times this movie was stolen and killed for and mistaken for other things. For such an outrageous plot, though, the narration was good, and I appreciated Roy's character growth, how he realizes that his obsession with movies was just a way to avoid real life. I liked his anxiety-driven use of movie trivia (and I also like the trivia itself) a lot. The twist at the end was mildly interesting. Overall, I didn't hate it, but it wasn't that good.
May 11, 2024
Not offensively bad, but highly formulaic, with characters popping up for clearly no reason other than to provide a convenient ort of information – not too much though, just the one thing that will move the mc from one thing to the next.
March 30, 2025
Reminded me a little of North by Northwest, which may have been one of the many movies mentioned in the book. It didn't feel very suspenseful and there were so many characters, it got confusing in places. But I did find it funny here and there and it kept my interest.
November 6, 2008
The suspense of it picked up rather quickly, which would have made it an easy read if the author didn't use dashes in almost every single sentence. And I wasn't too crazy about the ending.
August 14, 2009
ok. movie trivia buff on quest for an original version an old orson wells movie runs into murder and mayhem.
October 5, 2010
since i don't like murder mysteries, i am going to give this book a "neutral" review....I'm not putting it down, but i'm not putting it up on a pedestal either.
July 9, 2015
Rambling, somewhat slight plot saved by good narration - recommended over print version (which I doubt I would've finished).
July 10, 2012
Dumb.
Dumb dumb dumb, and the reader didn't do much for me either.
Dumb dumb dumb, and the reader didn't do much for me either.
October 24, 2012
This book felt very dated.
November 3, 2015
Kind of silly premise filled with old time movie references. hard to stay attentive.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews