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Tom Collins Mystery #2
The Doom List
The Doom List - you'd rather be dead than be on it: the intriguing new 1920s mystery featuring Irish-born cop turned private investigator Tom Collins.
July, 1922. Newly-appointed 'movie czar' William H. Hays is about to arrive in town on a single-minded mission to clean up Hollywood. He is said to be compiling a list of 'undesirables' whom he plans to bar from screen work. They call it the Doom List.
With the industry in the grip of fear and paranoia, Hollywood's hottest young director Rex Ingram is determined that no hint of scandal should mar the premiere of his new movie, The Prisoner of Zenda, and hires private investigator Tom Collins, a fellow Irishman, with instructions to protect his leading lady's reputation at all costs. But, as Collins discovers, Barbara La Marr isn't the only member of the cast hiding a dangerous secret.
Meanwhile, a body is discovered in the Baldwin Hills to the south of the city. Could there be a connection? Against his better judgement, Collins is drawn into a case of scandal, forbidden love, blackmail . . . and cold-blooded murder.
July, 1922. Newly-appointed 'movie czar' William H. Hays is about to arrive in town on a single-minded mission to clean up Hollywood. He is said to be compiling a list of 'undesirables' whom he plans to bar from screen work. They call it the Doom List.
With the industry in the grip of fear and paranoia, Hollywood's hottest young director Rex Ingram is determined that no hint of scandal should mar the premiere of his new movie, The Prisoner of Zenda, and hires private investigator Tom Collins, a fellow Irishman, with instructions to protect his leading lady's reputation at all costs. But, as Collins discovers, Barbara La Marr isn't the only member of the cast hiding a dangerous secret.
Meanwhile, a body is discovered in the Baldwin Hills to the south of the city. Could there be a connection? Against his better judgement, Collins is drawn into a case of scandal, forbidden love, blackmail . . . and cold-blooded murder.
202 pages, Hardcover
Published June 2, 2020
5 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
About the author
Gerard O'Donovan
7 books33 followersGerard O’Donovan was born in Cork and grew up in Dublin. After a brief career in the Irish civil service he travelled widely, working as a barman, bookseller, gherkin-bottler, philosophy tutor, and English teacher before settling down to make a living as a journalist and critic for, among others, The Sunday Times and The Daily Telegraph. In 2007 he was shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association’s prestigious Debut Dagger competition.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 5, 2020
Rejected due to far too many characters introduced constantly. I can't remember who's who.
As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you, NetGalley for this ARC.
O'Donovan weaves real Hollywood personalities and events of the 1920s into his very good mysteries. This follows in that style.
I recommend you divert a moment into The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) film history. Many of the novel's "big names" are here in this terrifically realised noir.
The Prisoner of Zenda, 1922 silent film by Rex Ingram (Wikipedia)
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As usual with my reviews, please first read the publisher’s blurb/summary of the book. Thank you, NetGalley for this ARC.
O'Donovan weaves real Hollywood personalities and events of the 1920s into his very good mysteries. This follows in that style.
I recommend you divert a moment into The Prisoner of Zenda (1922) film history. Many of the novel's "big names" are here in this terrifically realised noir.
The Prisoner of Zenda, 1922 silent film by Rex Ingram (Wikipedia)
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February 11, 2020
Ex Los Angeles cop turned private eye Tom Collins has two blackmail cases dumped in his lap, both involving Hollywood film actors. Tom has been hired by Rex Ingram, Hollywood's young hotshot director, to protect the reputation of his latest film's leading lady, Barbara La Marr, a beautiful woman with a risque sex life. Ingram's request comes just as newly-appointed 'movie czar' William H. Hays arrives in Los Angeles on a mission to clean up Hollywood. Hays is compiling a list of "undesirables" - actors, directors and others whom he plans to blacklist.
It's nicknamed "The Doom List" and Tom's latest clients may soon be on it.
As his investigative work begins, he's asked to help out another actor - Ramon, a young Mexican just setting out in his career but destined to be as big a star as Rudolf Valentino. Problems start to mount as both Barbara and Ramon haven't been completely honest with him. To make matters worse, political corruption is rife in Los Angeles and it's the same story in the city's police department, where detectives and uniformed officers are on the take.
And to top it all, in the Baldwin Hills, to the south of the city, a badly decomposed body has been found which could link Tom and his former LAPD detective colleague Thad to a murder.
In a fast moving plot packed with numerous twists and turns, we follow Tom Collins from film studio to bordello, and from all-night movie star parties to sleazy downtown bars, both trying to find ways around the Prohibition era's no alcohol laws. Author Gerard O' Donovan easily captures the atmosphere of Los Angeles in the scorching summer heat of 1922. The Hollywood actors and Los Angeles gangsters seem larger than life as is the sleaze of Hollywood's worst neighbourhoods and world weary cynicism of the city's policemen and its hard-nosed newspaper reporters.
The 2nd in this historical mystery series has it all - sexual scandal, blackmail, corruption and simmering violence, all wrapped up in the glitz and glamour of Roaring Twenties Hollywood. Amidst it all there's straight talking private eye Tom Collins, always trying to stay on the right side of the law.
My thanks to the publishers Severn House and to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.
It's nicknamed "The Doom List" and Tom's latest clients may soon be on it.
As his investigative work begins, he's asked to help out another actor - Ramon, a young Mexican just setting out in his career but destined to be as big a star as Rudolf Valentino. Problems start to mount as both Barbara and Ramon haven't been completely honest with him. To make matters worse, political corruption is rife in Los Angeles and it's the same story in the city's police department, where detectives and uniformed officers are on the take.
And to top it all, in the Baldwin Hills, to the south of the city, a badly decomposed body has been found which could link Tom and his former LAPD detective colleague Thad to a murder.
In a fast moving plot packed with numerous twists and turns, we follow Tom Collins from film studio to bordello, and from all-night movie star parties to sleazy downtown bars, both trying to find ways around the Prohibition era's no alcohol laws. Author Gerard O' Donovan easily captures the atmosphere of Los Angeles in the scorching summer heat of 1922. The Hollywood actors and Los Angeles gangsters seem larger than life as is the sleaze of Hollywood's worst neighbourhoods and world weary cynicism of the city's policemen and its hard-nosed newspaper reporters.
The 2nd in this historical mystery series has it all - sexual scandal, blackmail, corruption and simmering violence, all wrapped up in the glitz and glamour of Roaring Twenties Hollywood. Amidst it all there's straight talking private eye Tom Collins, always trying to stay on the right side of the law.
My thanks to the publishers Severn House and to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.
April 28, 2025
It's the silent movie era in Hollywood, and the Hays Office is about to go into effect. There's murder and blackmail and celebrity.
Not quite as madcap as it needs to be.
Not quite as madcap as it needs to be.
June 25, 2020
I usually don’t like stories set in Hollywood. And I usually don’t like historical fiction about real famous people. Yet, this mystery novel is set at the dawn of the Hollywood industry and it involves a lot of famous people (mostly actors) and I loved it.
I don’t know how many real facts are in this book. There’s a note at the end where the author tells of a few true events included in the story, all very cursory. But everything feels real to me. Certainly credible.
The plot is complex – it involves three different mysteries that eventually come together – but it’s generally easy to follow because it is so solid and logical.
There’s nothing extravagant about these mysteries. They sound very plausible, even the ones involving the stars. And it’s quite remarkable because a lot of politics is involved: the city politics, the Hollywood showbusiness politics, the underworld politics. Sometimes, this kind of things end up sounding far-fetched, but not here.
The setting is really very good.
And so are the characters, though I may find the stars’ personalities a bit over the top. But maybe that’s the way they really were. Who knows? Of most of them, I knew little more than the names.
The everyday people instead is incredibly relatable.
Tom Collins, the protagonist, is a great character. He is a former New York cop who removed to Hollywood when the film industry moved there and worked for one of the big studios in the security for a while. I love his dispassionate outlook on life, the way his mind works quiet and steady. I get a sense that he has seen a lot and there’s very little that can rattle him. And still, he is a very compassionate man, and there’s a feeling that that compassion also comes from his work. He can pin down a person in the bat of an eye, but he will also often sympathise with their sorrows and even their more trivial problems.
And I like that he’s not afraid of taking chances, though he does so only when it is utterly necessary, which is, in my opinion, a great narrative trait that also feels very realistic.
The dialogues are something special. They are all crisp, natural-sounding and still to the point. It’s a pleasure to hear these characters talk.
There’s a great noir feel to the story. Hollywood does help there. The city comes off the page so vividly that it’s easy to visualise the places and the people. It helped ground myself in the story, as did the historical details, the reconstruction of everyday life, which is always what I enjoy the most in historical fiction.
All in all, it’s a brilliant story, with a fantastic pace that makes it very very hard to put the book down for the night. So I’ll forgive an ending that is a bit less clean than the rest of the story, but it’s still satisfying.
I don’t know how many real facts are in this book. There’s a note at the end where the author tells of a few true events included in the story, all very cursory. But everything feels real to me. Certainly credible.
The plot is complex – it involves three different mysteries that eventually come together – but it’s generally easy to follow because it is so solid and logical.
There’s nothing extravagant about these mysteries. They sound very plausible, even the ones involving the stars. And it’s quite remarkable because a lot of politics is involved: the city politics, the Hollywood showbusiness politics, the underworld politics. Sometimes, this kind of things end up sounding far-fetched, but not here.
The setting is really very good.
And so are the characters, though I may find the stars’ personalities a bit over the top. But maybe that’s the way they really were. Who knows? Of most of them, I knew little more than the names.
The everyday people instead is incredibly relatable.
Tom Collins, the protagonist, is a great character. He is a former New York cop who removed to Hollywood when the film industry moved there and worked for one of the big studios in the security for a while. I love his dispassionate outlook on life, the way his mind works quiet and steady. I get a sense that he has seen a lot and there’s very little that can rattle him. And still, he is a very compassionate man, and there’s a feeling that that compassion also comes from his work. He can pin down a person in the bat of an eye, but he will also often sympathise with their sorrows and even their more trivial problems.
And I like that he’s not afraid of taking chances, though he does so only when it is utterly necessary, which is, in my opinion, a great narrative trait that also feels very realistic.
The dialogues are something special. They are all crisp, natural-sounding and still to the point. It’s a pleasure to hear these characters talk.
There’s a great noir feel to the story. Hollywood does help there. The city comes off the page so vividly that it’s easy to visualise the places and the people. It helped ground myself in the story, as did the historical details, the reconstruction of everyday life, which is always what I enjoy the most in historical fiction.
All in all, it’s a brilliant story, with a fantastic pace that makes it very very hard to put the book down for the night. So I’ll forgive an ending that is a bit less clean than the rest of the story, but it’s still satisfying.
May 8, 2020
I really enjoyed this second trip into old Hollywood - silents films are still the rage, talkies are barely on the scene, actors and actresses were glamourous, scandalous, mysterious and sometimes murderous. The weaving of some of these famous Hollywood folk into the story gives it a bit more of an edge, and O'Donovan again uses events from this time as a backdrop.
Whilst it is not necessary to have read the first in this series, I would recommend that you do as there are references to previous events in this new outing - events which have never quite been closed.
In Tom Collins, ex-cop, ex-studio fixer, now private inquiry agent, O'Donovan gives us a character straight from the pages of the classic noir playbook - right up their with Spade, Hammer or Marlowe. I enjoyed the style of storytelling, which provided enough plot twists and turns and diversions to keep the reader firmly planted on the edge of their seat. You get a true sense of what it was like back in the early days of Hollywood and Los Angeles.
Again, looking forward to the next instalment.
fuller review here @ Melisende's Library
Whilst it is not necessary to have read the first in this series, I would recommend that you do as there are references to previous events in this new outing - events which have never quite been closed.
In Tom Collins, ex-cop, ex-studio fixer, now private inquiry agent, O'Donovan gives us a character straight from the pages of the classic noir playbook - right up their with Spade, Hammer or Marlowe. I enjoyed the style of storytelling, which provided enough plot twists and turns and diversions to keep the reader firmly planted on the edge of their seat. You get a true sense of what it was like back in the early days of Hollywood and Los Angeles.
Again, looking forward to the next instalment.
fuller review here @ Melisende's Library
May 5, 2020
1922 Will H Hays, 'movie czar' in on his way to Hollywood, to clean it up of its undesirables. Which brings a problem to actress Barbara La Marr (pregnant and not currently married), and upcoming actor Ramon Samaniegos, because of his close friendship with a Gianni.
When a body is discovered in the desert Ramon is convinced that it is Gianni, who disappeared some weeks ago. This unnamed body is also of concern to Detective Thad Sullivan and p.i. Tom Collins, as they might know who it is, and be implicated in the death. Collins is employed by La Marr and Ramon to help with their problems, and hopefully for them not to be exposed so that their careers are ruined by ending up on Hays' 'Doom List'.
An enjoyable well-written historical mystery covering sleaze, corruption and sexual scandals, at city hall, the police or at the film industry.
A NetGalley Book
When a body is discovered in the desert Ramon is convinced that it is Gianni, who disappeared some weeks ago. This unnamed body is also of concern to Detective Thad Sullivan and p.i. Tom Collins, as they might know who it is, and be implicated in the death. Collins is employed by La Marr and Ramon to help with their problems, and hopefully for them not to be exposed so that their careers are ruined by ending up on Hays' 'Doom List'.
An enjoyable well-written historical mystery covering sleaze, corruption and sexual scandals, at city hall, the police or at the film industry.
A NetGalley Book
February 26, 2021
Apparently this is book 2...that's what I get for just grabbing a cool cover.
I don't think I missed much, but there seems to be some continuing story from the first book, so I was able to figure it out but didn't really care. Honestly the whole book was like that--I didn't really care about any of these characters. Also, I get that it's set in the 1920s, but I was immediately tired of the gay-bashing slurs and racist comments. Just... Ugh.
I don't think I missed much, but there seems to be some continuing story from the first book, so I was able to figure it out but didn't really care. Honestly the whole book was like that--I didn't really care about any of these characters. Also, I get that it's set in the 1920s, but I was immediately tired of the gay-bashing slurs and racist comments. Just... Ugh.
March 31, 2020
This a great who-dunnit, school of Philip Marlowe, and set in the real 1920s Hollywood, with all the glamour and all the sleaze. A fascinating ride through that time and place where even Fatty Arbuckle can have a walk-on part. And if you like it as much as I do there is the bonus of a previous book in the series – The Long Silence (which doesn’t need to be read first).
April 6, 2020
This will be a must read for all who are interested in the US film industry in the early 1920s and those who like their murder mystery reading full of real characters.
Unfortunately I did not take to the author's style and found it rather heavy-going, so it was a tad disappointing for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for the digital review copy.
Unfortunately I did not take to the author's style and found it rather heavy-going, so it was a tad disappointing for me.
Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for the digital review copy.
June 21, 2020
An excellent historical mystery that I really enjoyed. It's gripping, entertaining and well researched.
It's a bit slow at times but I liked the well crafted plot, the characters and the vivid historical background.
The mystery is solid, full of twists and turns, and it kept me guessing.
It's recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
It's a bit slow at times but I liked the well crafted plot, the characters and the vivid historical background.
The mystery is solid, full of twists and turns, and it kept me guessing.
It's recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
January 5, 2021
Great 1920s atmosphere gets booged up in convoluted plot. Still, for anyone who loves old Hollywood, an enjoyable read...
Read
January 12, 2021I didn't finish reading this book... 😆
September 28, 2025
A mystery set in the world of 1920s Hollywood -; the author uses real people, which is an interesting device, but somehow the story never comes alive.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews