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Silver Screen Historical Mystery #2
One Extra Corpse
Hollywood intrigue, glamor . . . and murder: Enter the roaring twenties in this thrilling Silver Screen historical mystery, starring two very different female sleuths.
May, 1924. It's been seven months since young British widow Emma Blackstone arrived in Hollywood to serve as companion to Kitty Flint: her beautiful, silent-movie star sister-in-law. Kitty is generous, kind-hearted . . . and a truly terrible actress. Not that Emma minds; she's too busy making her academic parents turn in their graves with her new job writing painfully historically inaccurate scenarios for Foremost Studios, in between wrangling their leading lady out of the arms of her army of amorous suitors.
So when one of Kitty's old flames, renowned film director Ernst Zapolya, calls Emma and tells her it's imperative he meet with Kitty that morning, she's not surprised. Until, that is, he adds that lives depend on it. Ernest sounds frightened. But what can have scared him so badly - and what on earth does cheerful, flighty Kitty have to do with it?
Only Ernest can provide the answers, and Kitty and Emma travel to the set of his extravagant new movie to find them. But the shocking discovery they make there only raises further questions . . . including: will they stay alive long enough to solve the murderous puzzle?
May, 1924. It's been seven months since young British widow Emma Blackstone arrived in Hollywood to serve as companion to Kitty Flint: her beautiful, silent-movie star sister-in-law. Kitty is generous, kind-hearted . . . and a truly terrible actress. Not that Emma minds; she's too busy making her academic parents turn in their graves with her new job writing painfully historically inaccurate scenarios for Foremost Studios, in between wrangling their leading lady out of the arms of her army of amorous suitors.
So when one of Kitty's old flames, renowned film director Ernst Zapolya, calls Emma and tells her it's imperative he meet with Kitty that morning, she's not surprised. Until, that is, he adds that lives depend on it. Ernest sounds frightened. But what can have scared him so badly - and what on earth does cheerful, flighty Kitty have to do with it?
Only Ernest can provide the answers, and Kitty and Emma travel to the set of his extravagant new movie to find them. But the shocking discovery they make there only raises further questions . . . including: will they stay alive long enough to solve the murderous puzzle?
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 7, 2023
25 people are currently reading
189 people want to read
About the author
Barbara Hambly
205 books1,588 followersaka Barbara Hamilton
Ranging from fantasy to historical fiction, Barbara Hambly has a masterful way of spinning a story. Her twisty plots involve memorable characters, lavish descriptions, scads of novel words, and interesting devices. Her work spans the Star Wars universe, antebellum New Orleans, and various fantasy worlds, sometimes linked with our own.
"I always wanted to be a writer but everyone kept telling me it was impossible to break into the field or make money. I've proven them wrong on both counts."
-Barbara Hambly
Ranging from fantasy to historical fiction, Barbara Hambly has a masterful way of spinning a story. Her twisty plots involve memorable characters, lavish descriptions, scads of novel words, and interesting devices. Her work spans the Star Wars universe, antebellum New Orleans, and various fantasy worlds, sometimes linked with our own.
"I always wanted to be a writer but everyone kept telling me it was impossible to break into the field or make money. I've proven them wrong on both counts."
-Barbara Hambly
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
March 1, 2023
It's Barbara Hambly, so obviously it's wonderful. It shot to the top of by TBR list, shamelessly leaving plenty of Netgalley dust-collectors behind. And it's a beautifully written confection of old, brand-new Hollywood, silent film and Pekingese, rampant romance and murder.
But I still find it baffling that the predecessor to this book, Scandal in Babylon, was basically Bride of the Rat God with the fantasy elements excised and the names changed (except, most bizarrely, for the dogs'). Bride is one of my favorite books, not just by Ms Hambly but by any human being, and it just confusticates me to see the exact corollaries of the characters in Bride continuing to live on in new adventures with no magic but silver screen trickery. I'm a little hung up on it.
But being one of my most favored writers brings with it acceptance of situations which would, from other authors, result in my most scathing contempt. If someone else reconstituted one of their old books into a new series, I would most likely never forgive them. Barbara Hambly? Must have had her reasons.
And in all seriousness, as long as nobody tries to take Bride away from me, I'm delighted by a new series. Hollywood of the 20's is a glorious, sordid, enchanting, cursed time and place, and Ms. Hambly writes about it as she does everything else - like she was there. Her knowledge and research is deep and wide and sure-footed; the setting is magnificent. Of course the writing is superb. And as I've said before often enough that it's becoming a personal cliché, even the most briefly seen, most extra of extras is obviously the star of their own story - there is always enough even to NPC's that it wouldn't be that hard to sit down and write a fan-fiction alternate timeline featuring almost any one of them.
I'd actually love to see an alternate timeline version of any of the books, Bride or Bride rehash, from the points of view of the Pekingese. And those three are a big reason for me to just shut up about missing Chrysanda Flamande and Norah - I still have the three elegant walking mops.
The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.
But I still find it baffling that the predecessor to this book, Scandal in Babylon, was basically Bride of the Rat God with the fantasy elements excised and the names changed (except, most bizarrely, for the dogs'). Bride is one of my favorite books, not just by Ms Hambly but by any human being, and it just confusticates me to see the exact corollaries of the characters in Bride continuing to live on in new adventures with no magic but silver screen trickery. I'm a little hung up on it.
But being one of my most favored writers brings with it acceptance of situations which would, from other authors, result in my most scathing contempt. If someone else reconstituted one of their old books into a new series, I would most likely never forgive them. Barbara Hambly? Must have had her reasons.
And in all seriousness, as long as nobody tries to take Bride away from me, I'm delighted by a new series. Hollywood of the 20's is a glorious, sordid, enchanting, cursed time and place, and Ms. Hambly writes about it as she does everything else - like she was there. Her knowledge and research is deep and wide and sure-footed; the setting is magnificent. Of course the writing is superb. And as I've said before often enough that it's becoming a personal cliché, even the most briefly seen, most extra of extras is obviously the star of their own story - there is always enough even to NPC's that it wouldn't be that hard to sit down and write a fan-fiction alternate timeline featuring almost any one of them.
I'd actually love to see an alternate timeline version of any of the books, Bride or Bride rehash, from the points of view of the Pekingese. And those three are a big reason for me to just shut up about missing Chrysanda Flamande and Norah - I still have the three elegant walking mops.
The usual disclaimer: I received this book via Netgalley for review.
March 8, 2023
3 1/2 stars. I have really enjoyed Barbara Hambly's writing fantasy and historical mysteries for many years. It is no different with this relatively new series (this is the second addition and the first I have read). Set in the 1920s, it really feels like you have stepped back in time to the back lot of a silent film company. Emma Blackstone and her sister-in-law, Kitty Flint, a movie star, investigate the murder of a director in the middle of filming a battlefield scene.
Hambly has nailed the atmosphere, along with great characters and a behind-the-scene look at the difficulties of filming in the early days of movies. Egos clash, romance and trysts in real life as well as on the screen, directors, producers and movie company owners ruthlessly pursue their agendas with little care for decency or human life. Money, fame, and the fear of Communism create lots of suspects and plenty of red herrings. It will keep you guessing until the end.
The only real drawback for me were the amount of names thrown out, particularly in the beginning. If you don't have some knowledge of actors and mover and shakers from this time period you can easily get lost in trying to figure out who is important who is just screen dressing for the atmosphere.
If you are looking for something a bit different than many of the 1920s cozies out there, you should read this. Hambly is a great writer and will take you to a different time when the glamor was real and the nastiness behind it was also. But there was also real feelings and human warmth too.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest opinion.
Hambly has nailed the atmosphere, along with great characters and a behind-the-scene look at the difficulties of filming in the early days of movies. Egos clash, romance and trysts in real life as well as on the screen, directors, producers and movie company owners ruthlessly pursue their agendas with little care for decency or human life. Money, fame, and the fear of Communism create lots of suspects and plenty of red herrings. It will keep you guessing until the end.
The only real drawback for me were the amount of names thrown out, particularly in the beginning. If you don't have some knowledge of actors and mover and shakers from this time period you can easily get lost in trying to figure out who is important who is just screen dressing for the atmosphere.
If you are looking for something a bit different than many of the 1920s cozies out there, you should read this. Hambly is a great writer and will take you to a different time when the glamor was real and the nastiness behind it was also. But there was also real feelings and human warmth too.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in return for an honest opinion.
April 3, 2023
I am generally inclined to think that Barbara Hambly is the best historical fiction/historical fantasy author working today. She's very good at conveying the feel of a time and a place, letting mood do the work instead of name-drops.
March 6, 2023
This book is the second in a series, but I read this as a standalone. Overall, it is an interesting book set in old world Hollywood, well researched with a good story. However I struggled to settle into the writing style. In my opinion the overly long sentences felt like every description had an unnecessary comparison and the protagonist’s meandering stream of consciousness impacted the flow of the story. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
March 24, 2023
This is a very enjoyable series: well plotted, compelling, mixing historical characters with fiction, and featuring a solid mystery that always keeps me guessing.
There's plenty of twists and surprises, Emma and Kitty are as likeable as before and there's an evolution in these character.
The cultural clash between Emma, sophisticated classicist, and Hollywood world in the Twenties is one of the strongest point of this series like the description of the life on set.
I thoroughly enjoyed this myestery and it's highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
There's plenty of twists and surprises, Emma and Kitty are as likeable as before and there's an evolution in these character.
The cultural clash between Emma, sophisticated classicist, and Hollywood world in the Twenties is one of the strongest point of this series like the description of the life on set.
I thoroughly enjoyed this myestery and it's highly recommended.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
March 25, 2023
Widowed young Englishwoman Emma finds herself assisting her sister-in-law actress Kitty in 1920's Hollywood, and also trying to write scenarios for the silent films. Emma is falling in love with a studio cameraman who is the opposite of the handsome actors who throng around Kitty, and who readily assists her help clear a young extra who is the suspect in the murder o a famous and lecherous director. Various historic figures take their places, along with too many fictional stars to count, as Emma find herself dealing with bootlegger, the nascent Bureau of Investigation, communist infiltrators, and Mexican refugees.
June 10, 2023
OK read. I probably won't read subsequent books in the series. I just don't like the characters enough.
February 20, 2023
Murder, glamour and total mayhem on a movie set are some of the compelling ingredients that the reader will encounter in this new addition to Ms Hambly's marvellous Silver Screen Historical Mystery Series, a delicious literary cocktail full of flamboyant characters, sparkling dialogues and lots of fascinating details about Hollywood during the Roaring Twenties...
An adrenaline-fueled whodunit that kept me on the edge of my seat from the get-go and a highly entertaining novel that really deserves to be discovered and enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever!
Many thanks to Severn House and Netgalley for this terrific ARC!
An adrenaline-fueled whodunit that kept me on the edge of my seat from the get-go and a highly entertaining novel that really deserves to be discovered and enjoyed without any moderation whatsoever!
Many thanks to Severn House and Netgalley for this terrific ARC!
December 1, 2024
[2.5 stars really]
Anyone who’s read enough Agatha Christie knows that, if a Communist character shows up, even though he immediately falls under suspicion, he is not the killer. Not because Christie was some kind of fellow traveler: her Communists are generally unpleasant, angry, misguided young men, whose understanding of society is much inferior to that of Hercule Poirot. Instead, it’s because her type of plot requires a personal motive. The killer always has something to gain from the killing: an ideological killing leaves nothing for the detective to deduce, no riddle to unravel. And this is a general principle of mysteries of the classic type: the solution is always personal, rather than political. (Of course, as the saying goes, the personal is political, which is why the books themselves are not apolitical, but their solutions are.) "One Extra Corpse" is undoubtedly a mystery of the classic type: thus, when some sinister Communists showed up, I was immediately confident that they had nothing to do with the murder (of a director) that Emma and Kitty were investigating. And so it proved, which makes it rather strange that most of the second half of the book is spent in what amounts to a J. Edgar Hoover fever dream. Our heroes are pursued by an extremely implausible Communist death squad who are hoping to get hold of a Macguffin that ends up being a big hearty nothingburger. I wouldn’t mind the Red Scare propaganda pamphlet aspect of things so much if it at least made sense, but it doesn’t, and I think that’s because, surprisingly, the trained historian Hambly seems to have no grasp of the relevant history.
Some of the mistakes are really basic, as when Emma remembers the Socialist and Communist clubs of pre-WWI Oxford. I have my doubts about the existence of a Socialist Club: Oxford was a fount of reaction — no surprise, since practically all of the students came from the upper classes — at least through the mid-twenties, when Oxford students were mobilized to help break the General Strike. However, I am 100% certain that there was no Communist Club at Oxford before WWI, because there was no such thing as a Communist Party in Great Britain, or anywhere else, until after the Russian Revolution. Other mistakes are slightly less obvious but still not particularly esoteric. Hambly refers often to Trostkyists and Stalinists: those terms wouldn’t come into use until after Trotsky was expelled from the CPSU, years after this book is set. Her understanding of what Stalinism means is inevitably anachronistic, given that there wasn’t any such thing as Stalinism yet: her description of Stalinists as being hard men who don’t mind killing seems to be largely inspired by the purges and show trials of the ‘30s. On the other hand, her understanding of Stalin and Trotsky’s positions in the struggle for leadership of the USSR is just plain wrong. She describes Trotsky as being closer to social democracy, wanting to allow the existence of private property and independent trade unions, which was exactly the opposite of what Trotsky stood for: he was the hard-left ideologue she depicts Stalin as being, whereas in reality Stalin was a pragmatist who played off the Left and Right Oppositions against each other and then devoured them both. Most directly relevant to what happens in the book is her depiction of Communists as being highly sectarian: it is certainly true that at times the CPUSA attacked (rhetorically rather than physically) other radical left groups, but the mid-‘20s were not one of those times.
So it’s pretty clear that Hambly hasn’t exactly done an intensive study of Communism in the mid-'20s, and I strongly suspect that’s why she can’t come up with a reasonable rationale for the actions of the Communists in this book. There’s some vague hand-waving in the direction of the power struggle that was beginning in Moscow, but no conception of how anything happening in Hollywood could possibly have an impact on the outcome. (Members of the 3rd International did not get to vote on who would be the next General Secretary of the CPSU.) All we have is the Macguffin, something that the dead man thought was tremendously important but turns out not to be at all: a set of papers and some money (a large amount, but not that large) to allow a socialist to return to his home country. It might make a bit of sense if he were Russian, but instead he’s Mexican. Why the CPUSA, even in the most conspiratorial interpretation, should care about this is beyond me, and Hambly barely bothers with an explanation: she doesn’t even try to connect this to the question of who’s going to lead the USSR. Instead, there's a vague and totally unsupported suggestion that this one man could change the direction of Mexican politics. Perhaps feeling guilty about all the Red Scare stuff, Hambly has the Mexican socialist be handsome and charismatic, but otherwise makes no effort to convince the reader that his presence in Mexico can make a significant difference to anything. Worse, it’s not even clear to me that he needs these (presumably forged) papers to go back to Mexico: a century ago, people went back and forth over the border without bothering the immigration authorities all the time.
But it's not just that our protagonists spend all their time dodging extremely farfetched Commie killers who are after them for no good reason: it's also that, since they're busy doing that, they have no time to look for the actual murderer. What should have been a red herring lasting a chapter or so instead takes over the book and crowds out everything else. Amazingly, despite being a mystery novel, the book has almost no detective work at all: the murder has to be solved, of course, but Emma and Kitty contribute almost nothing to the solution. The Commie danger side of things also takes time away from the Hollywood stuff, which is too bad since the Hollywood setting is one of the best things about the series so far. While Hambly has clearly not studied the early history of Communism, she just as clearly has done her research on the early film industry. That's why she can construct a realistic-feeling murder with a plausible murderer who has an understandable motivation, and create some likeable and sympathetic characters to try to investigate it. It's quite unfortunate that, for whatever reason, she chose to spend much of this book on something else instead.
Anyone who’s read enough Agatha Christie knows that, if a Communist character shows up, even though he immediately falls under suspicion, he is not the killer. Not because Christie was some kind of fellow traveler: her Communists are generally unpleasant, angry, misguided young men, whose understanding of society is much inferior to that of Hercule Poirot. Instead, it’s because her type of plot requires a personal motive. The killer always has something to gain from the killing: an ideological killing leaves nothing for the detective to deduce, no riddle to unravel. And this is a general principle of mysteries of the classic type: the solution is always personal, rather than political. (Of course, as the saying goes, the personal is political, which is why the books themselves are not apolitical, but their solutions are.) "One Extra Corpse" is undoubtedly a mystery of the classic type: thus, when some sinister Communists showed up, I was immediately confident that they had nothing to do with the murder (of a director) that Emma and Kitty were investigating. And so it proved, which makes it rather strange that most of the second half of the book is spent in what amounts to a J. Edgar Hoover fever dream. Our heroes are pursued by an extremely implausible Communist death squad who are hoping to get hold of a Macguffin that ends up being a big hearty nothingburger. I wouldn’t mind the Red Scare propaganda pamphlet aspect of things so much if it at least made sense, but it doesn’t, and I think that’s because, surprisingly, the trained historian Hambly seems to have no grasp of the relevant history.
Some of the mistakes are really basic, as when Emma remembers the Socialist and Communist clubs of pre-WWI Oxford. I have my doubts about the existence of a Socialist Club: Oxford was a fount of reaction — no surprise, since practically all of the students came from the upper classes — at least through the mid-twenties, when Oxford students were mobilized to help break the General Strike. However, I am 100% certain that there was no Communist Club at Oxford before WWI, because there was no such thing as a Communist Party in Great Britain, or anywhere else, until after the Russian Revolution. Other mistakes are slightly less obvious but still not particularly esoteric. Hambly refers often to Trostkyists and Stalinists: those terms wouldn’t come into use until after Trotsky was expelled from the CPSU, years after this book is set. Her understanding of what Stalinism means is inevitably anachronistic, given that there wasn’t any such thing as Stalinism yet: her description of Stalinists as being hard men who don’t mind killing seems to be largely inspired by the purges and show trials of the ‘30s. On the other hand, her understanding of Stalin and Trotsky’s positions in the struggle for leadership of the USSR is just plain wrong. She describes Trotsky as being closer to social democracy, wanting to allow the existence of private property and independent trade unions, which was exactly the opposite of what Trotsky stood for: he was the hard-left ideologue she depicts Stalin as being, whereas in reality Stalin was a pragmatist who played off the Left and Right Oppositions against each other and then devoured them both. Most directly relevant to what happens in the book is her depiction of Communists as being highly sectarian: it is certainly true that at times the CPUSA attacked (rhetorically rather than physically) other radical left groups, but the mid-‘20s were not one of those times.
So it’s pretty clear that Hambly hasn’t exactly done an intensive study of Communism in the mid-'20s, and I strongly suspect that’s why she can’t come up with a reasonable rationale for the actions of the Communists in this book. There’s some vague hand-waving in the direction of the power struggle that was beginning in Moscow, but no conception of how anything happening in Hollywood could possibly have an impact on the outcome. (Members of the 3rd International did not get to vote on who would be the next General Secretary of the CPSU.) All we have is the Macguffin, something that the dead man thought was tremendously important but turns out not to be at all: a set of papers and some money (a large amount, but not that large) to allow a socialist to return to his home country. It might make a bit of sense if he were Russian, but instead he’s Mexican. Why the CPUSA, even in the most conspiratorial interpretation, should care about this is beyond me, and Hambly barely bothers with an explanation: she doesn’t even try to connect this to the question of who’s going to lead the USSR. Instead, there's a vague and totally unsupported suggestion that this one man could change the direction of Mexican politics. Perhaps feeling guilty about all the Red Scare stuff, Hambly has the Mexican socialist be handsome and charismatic, but otherwise makes no effort to convince the reader that his presence in Mexico can make a significant difference to anything. Worse, it’s not even clear to me that he needs these (presumably forged) papers to go back to Mexico: a century ago, people went back and forth over the border without bothering the immigration authorities all the time.
But it's not just that our protagonists spend all their time dodging extremely farfetched Commie killers who are after them for no good reason: it's also that, since they're busy doing that, they have no time to look for the actual murderer. What should have been a red herring lasting a chapter or so instead takes over the book and crowds out everything else. Amazingly, despite being a mystery novel, the book has almost no detective work at all: the murder has to be solved, of course, but Emma and Kitty contribute almost nothing to the solution. The Commie danger side of things also takes time away from the Hollywood stuff, which is too bad since the Hollywood setting is one of the best things about the series so far. While Hambly has clearly not studied the early history of Communism, she just as clearly has done her research on the early film industry. That's why she can construct a realistic-feeling murder with a plausible murderer who has an understandable motivation, and create some likeable and sympathetic characters to try to investigate it. It's quite unfortunate that, for whatever reason, she chose to spend much of this book on something else instead.
September 22, 2023
Ms. Hambly is the author of my favourite fantasy series and I looked so forward to reading her take on 1920s Hollywood. Unfortunately I found myself disappointed. This tale of an on-set murder gets bogged down in overly long descriptions of the setting, and a main character who regularly mentally quotes Latin or gets distracted by her memories. I know that Ms. Hambly is a historian and I’m sure she adored all the research she was able to do to get the setting right, but it seems she sacrificed plot and character for it. The story takes place in 1924 and there are references to Russia and revolutionary Mexico that are crucial to the plot, but not enough description for the layperson. The MC’s sister-in-law comes across as a parody of silent film stars, and there seemed to be moments missing within or between chapters to link the action. Overall I just found this a struggle to get through.
April 7, 2023
One Extra Corpse, like its predecessor Scandal in Babylon, strips away the phony tinsel of Hollywood to find the real dirty, bloody tinsel underneath.
It’s 1924, just one month after the events of the first book in the Silver Screen Historical Mystery series, Emma Blackstone has mostly settled herself into her new life in Hollywood as her movie star sister-in-law’s general factotum and keeper of all secrets as well as caretaker of both Kitty Flint AND her three pampered Pekingese dogs, Chang Ming, Black Jasmine, and Buttercreme.
Managing Kitty also comes with a bit of tinsel-making of Emma’s own. She’s regularly employed – and sometimes just plain used – as a scene doctor for movie scripts during these frenetic-paced early days of the silver screen – and occasionally as a social prop for a gay actor who needs to be seen with a woman to protect his image.
Days that may be silent on film but are filled with noise, chatter and above all gossip behind the scenes. Gossip that all too frequently includes who’s sleeping with whom this week – as opposed to last week or next week – as the star-making machinery of Hollywood seems to be fueled by equal parts sex and addiction.
The addiction of entirely too many actors to their drugs of choice – frequently provided by their studios, the addiction of the studios to making money and controlling their actors so that they can keep making that money, and the addiction of the general public to movies as well as gossip about their favorite stars.
No one wants a dead body on the set, not when that dead body belongs to a big name movie director and when it’s all too clear that the man was murdered. Quite possibly by his over-acting, downright histrionic current wife. Who had plenty of motives and no alibi.
But she’s a star in her own right, and her studio doesn’t want to ruin her box-office potential. She makes them too much money to be a murderer, and the police have been paid plenty to make sure she doesn’t get labeled as one. The studios have handed the police a neat-and-tidy case with a tailor-made perpetrator. They can afford to sacrifice an extra to keep one of their stars out of trouble.
Which is where Emma and Kitty get themselves involved. They were on the scene because the victim had something important he wanted to tell Kitty. Who was one of his many, many ex-lovers, just as he was one of hers. Of course, he was killed before he could tell them whatever-it-was, otherwise there wouldn’t be a case to investigate.
And there so very much is. Not the case of a jealous wife, tempting though it was. Or at least Emma is sure that isn’t the solution – not when the Bureau of Investigation (the FBI before it became the FBI) seems to have searched Kitty’s house looking for something, and mysterious thugs make multiple attempts to murder one or both of them.
All while a desperate young woman is on the hook for a murder that she couldn’t possibly have committed. Or could she?
Escape Rating A: This was surprisingly meaty for a book whose cover kind of screams camp with vamp, but then, the silent movie era did have to maximize flash and style to convey emotion. After all, the characters couldn’t use their own words, or even the scriptwriter’s words.
What makes this story so good, and kind of rocks the reader on their heels at the end, is the way that it gets deep into how the sausage-machine of moviemaking worked then – and probably still does now to a greater extent than we like to think about while we’re watching the latest hit.
This story looks hard at the human cost of all that “entertainment”. When that director is killed on set, he dies in the middle of directing a climactic battle scene in his last picture. A scene that uses real bullets fired hopefully above the heads of real people while the inevitable stampeding horses are harnessed into a rig that is guaranteed to bring them down in a crash of heavy bodies on spindly legs that will look great on film. That some of those extras will need to be carried off on stretchers, and that some of the horses will be crippled and shot afterwards, is considered just part of the cost of making movies.
Nobody cares who or how many die as long as it can be hushed up and the show goes on. Which is what the case turns out to be all about in the end.
But it middles in a whole lot of the real issues of the time, in Hollywood and elsewhere. Particularly, in this case, the growing “Red Scare” about communism and socialism in Hollywood, and the lengths the government will go to suppress it, the adults who briefly flirted with it in their misspent youths will go to escape their pasts, and how far some will go to keep their secrets – or the secrets of their own, currently imploding, government.
As the story whipsaws the reader back and forth from the froth of Hollywood to the hamfisted murder investigation to the all-too-real threats to Emma’s and Kitty’s life and liberty, it’s impossible to stop turning pages to find out not just whodunnit but what they done and why they did it.
Most people read mysteries for what has been called “the romance of justice”, that guarantee that good will triumph and evil will get its just desserts. One Extra Corpse doesn’t deliver on the whole of that promise, but it delivers as much justice as was possible and definitely satisfies in that delivery just the same.
Originally published at Reading Reality
It’s 1924, just one month after the events of the first book in the Silver Screen Historical Mystery series, Emma Blackstone has mostly settled herself into her new life in Hollywood as her movie star sister-in-law’s general factotum and keeper of all secrets as well as caretaker of both Kitty Flint AND her three pampered Pekingese dogs, Chang Ming, Black Jasmine, and Buttercreme.
Managing Kitty also comes with a bit of tinsel-making of Emma’s own. She’s regularly employed – and sometimes just plain used – as a scene doctor for movie scripts during these frenetic-paced early days of the silver screen – and occasionally as a social prop for a gay actor who needs to be seen with a woman to protect his image.
Days that may be silent on film but are filled with noise, chatter and above all gossip behind the scenes. Gossip that all too frequently includes who’s sleeping with whom this week – as opposed to last week or next week – as the star-making machinery of Hollywood seems to be fueled by equal parts sex and addiction.
The addiction of entirely too many actors to their drugs of choice – frequently provided by their studios, the addiction of the studios to making money and controlling their actors so that they can keep making that money, and the addiction of the general public to movies as well as gossip about their favorite stars.
No one wants a dead body on the set, not when that dead body belongs to a big name movie director and when it’s all too clear that the man was murdered. Quite possibly by his over-acting, downright histrionic current wife. Who had plenty of motives and no alibi.
But she’s a star in her own right, and her studio doesn’t want to ruin her box-office potential. She makes them too much money to be a murderer, and the police have been paid plenty to make sure she doesn’t get labeled as one. The studios have handed the police a neat-and-tidy case with a tailor-made perpetrator. They can afford to sacrifice an extra to keep one of their stars out of trouble.
Which is where Emma and Kitty get themselves involved. They were on the scene because the victim had something important he wanted to tell Kitty. Who was one of his many, many ex-lovers, just as he was one of hers. Of course, he was killed before he could tell them whatever-it-was, otherwise there wouldn’t be a case to investigate.
And there so very much is. Not the case of a jealous wife, tempting though it was. Or at least Emma is sure that isn’t the solution – not when the Bureau of Investigation (the FBI before it became the FBI) seems to have searched Kitty’s house looking for something, and mysterious thugs make multiple attempts to murder one or both of them.
All while a desperate young woman is on the hook for a murder that she couldn’t possibly have committed. Or could she?
Escape Rating A: This was surprisingly meaty for a book whose cover kind of screams camp with vamp, but then, the silent movie era did have to maximize flash and style to convey emotion. After all, the characters couldn’t use their own words, or even the scriptwriter’s words.
What makes this story so good, and kind of rocks the reader on their heels at the end, is the way that it gets deep into how the sausage-machine of moviemaking worked then – and probably still does now to a greater extent than we like to think about while we’re watching the latest hit.
This story looks hard at the human cost of all that “entertainment”. When that director is killed on set, he dies in the middle of directing a climactic battle scene in his last picture. A scene that uses real bullets fired hopefully above the heads of real people while the inevitable stampeding horses are harnessed into a rig that is guaranteed to bring them down in a crash of heavy bodies on spindly legs that will look great on film. That some of those extras will need to be carried off on stretchers, and that some of the horses will be crippled and shot afterwards, is considered just part of the cost of making movies.
Nobody cares who or how many die as long as it can be hushed up and the show goes on. Which is what the case turns out to be all about in the end.
But it middles in a whole lot of the real issues of the time, in Hollywood and elsewhere. Particularly, in this case, the growing “Red Scare” about communism and socialism in Hollywood, and the lengths the government will go to suppress it, the adults who briefly flirted with it in their misspent youths will go to escape their pasts, and how far some will go to keep their secrets – or the secrets of their own, currently imploding, government.
As the story whipsaws the reader back and forth from the froth of Hollywood to the hamfisted murder investigation to the all-too-real threats to Emma’s and Kitty’s life and liberty, it’s impossible to stop turning pages to find out not just whodunnit but what they done and why they did it.
Most people read mysteries for what has been called “the romance of justice”, that guarantee that good will triumph and evil will get its just desserts. One Extra Corpse doesn’t deliver on the whole of that promise, but it delivers as much justice as was possible and definitely satisfies in that delivery just the same.
Originally published at Reading Reality
May 4, 2023
Small frippery of studio life in 1924 Hollywood. Peppered with literary references to Emma’s life as the daughter of an archaeologist in Oxford. These references always seem artificial, concocted to disguise the vapid nature of the book. Hollywood hasn’t changed much since then BTW.
The expert reading of the audiobook is the sole reason I was able to get through it.
The expert reading of the audiobook is the sole reason I was able to get through it.
May 5, 2023
Didn't like the characters and could not get in to the book except by skipping paragraphs.
May 29, 2023
The author did a great job of setting the scene for the time period but that’s the only good part about this book. The actual murder mystery portion of the book is terrible. Struggled to finish.
March 6, 2023
Many thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for this Advanced Reader Copy and the opportunity to review One Extra Corpse. All opinions and comments are my own.
If you’d like a crash course in silent screen movie-making and a whole lot of Hollywood name-dropping, then this is the book for you. You get that and a lot more in One Extra Corpse in which our heroines Emma Blackstone and her sister-in-law, Kitty Flint AKA famed movie star Camille de la Rose are once again up to the task of solving a murder, this time a director. What you won’t get is a quick trip from Point A (the murder) to Point B (solving the murder). And lots of Latin quotations, just as in the first book in the series. Be prepared for that, too.
So, who had it in for Ernst Zapolya enough to plug him while he was busy directing one of his enormous action scenes? Complete with live explosions and live bullets, no less. The Powers That Be have picked out somebody already -- a no-talent starlet -- but Emma and Kitty won’t allow that to happen. So, we’re off, to visit every town in Southern California, I swear, in search of a killer.
There are a lot of great character sketches to be had within these pages. It was an amazing time, these early days of Hollywood, and readers will get to “meet” a whole bunch of movie people. It’s also not a very pretty picture, be prepared for that, too. As one of the characters says about another, “She’s been in more laps in this town than a napkin.” You get the idea, I’m sure.
Emma does most of the investigating, going through the sets and visiting places; you won’t have to use much of your imagination, because the author describes it all for you. I could have done with less of this.
From the beginning, Zapolya had something he wanted to tell Kitty/Camille. You’ll eventually find out what that was, which fits in with what became an issue for the movie industry in the decades following our story. And that murder? Well, there’s questions, and answers, and ruminations, a whole lot that’s rather sad. Life goes on, for some, and it’s time for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.
One Extra Corpse is entertaining, the murder mystery somewhat secondary to the descriptions of early movie-making. It did take a while to get to the reason for it all. Having said that, I do enjoy seeing what Emma and Kitty get up to. There’s always another story to follow in Tinseltown, I’m sure.
If you’d like a crash course in silent screen movie-making and a whole lot of Hollywood name-dropping, then this is the book for you. You get that and a lot more in One Extra Corpse in which our heroines Emma Blackstone and her sister-in-law, Kitty Flint AKA famed movie star Camille de la Rose are once again up to the task of solving a murder, this time a director. What you won’t get is a quick trip from Point A (the murder) to Point B (solving the murder). And lots of Latin quotations, just as in the first book in the series. Be prepared for that, too.
So, who had it in for Ernst Zapolya enough to plug him while he was busy directing one of his enormous action scenes? Complete with live explosions and live bullets, no less. The Powers That Be have picked out somebody already -- a no-talent starlet -- but Emma and Kitty won’t allow that to happen. So, we’re off, to visit every town in Southern California, I swear, in search of a killer.
There are a lot of great character sketches to be had within these pages. It was an amazing time, these early days of Hollywood, and readers will get to “meet” a whole bunch of movie people. It’s also not a very pretty picture, be prepared for that, too. As one of the characters says about another, “She’s been in more laps in this town than a napkin.” You get the idea, I’m sure.
Emma does most of the investigating, going through the sets and visiting places; you won’t have to use much of your imagination, because the author describes it all for you. I could have done with less of this.
From the beginning, Zapolya had something he wanted to tell Kitty/Camille. You’ll eventually find out what that was, which fits in with what became an issue for the movie industry in the decades following our story. And that murder? Well, there’s questions, and answers, and ruminations, a whole lot that’s rather sad. Life goes on, for some, and it’s time for my close-up, Mr. DeMille.
One Extra Corpse is entertaining, the murder mystery somewhat secondary to the descriptions of early movie-making. It did take a while to get to the reason for it all. Having said that, I do enjoy seeing what Emma and Kitty get up to. There’s always another story to follow in Tinseltown, I’m sure.
March 27, 2023
What immediately struck me with this book is how completely Hambly catches the giddy, hedonistic whirl of parties, assignations and manoeuvring going on. There are actors desperate for better parts… producers and directors desperate to make their current film stand out from the increasing competition… those desperate to keep their film star reputations intact… And in the middle of all this is war widow Emma Blackstone, companion and assistant to her beautiful sister-in-law, Kitty Flint, who parties as hard as the best of them – regularly turning up at the set having not been home the previous night and relying on Emma to get her ready for the day’s filming.
I got a ringside seat at the gossip, the constant affairs and some of the problems with the filming – the hilarious rewrites that Emma is asked to make are a running joke throughout the book. I found the world beguiling and wonderfully glamorous – but beneath the glamour lies a darker tone. Having to sleep with the director and/or producer on whichever film she’s on is part of the job, as far as Kitty is concerned – even as a major star. Filming is intensive with actors taking all sorts of stimulants to keep going – the most common being bootleg liquor, but there are also drug dealers on set. And action scenes are often horribly dangerous, with horses and extras regularly being injured and sometimes killed, with virtually no consequences, as the film industry at this time isn’t held to account.
So when there is a murder during the filming of a major explosion – the studio is determined to pin the crime on the first person who discovers the body. However, Kitty and Emma aren’t so sure. To be honest – the crime and whodunit wasn’t a major consideration for me, as I was dazzled by the vividness of the world Hambly depicts. It rings true, too. Having read David Niven’s wonderful autobiography, The Moon’s a Balloon, I got a similar sense of a hectic lifestyle where people were determined to have a good time, no matter what.
That said, the murder mystery does steadily become more important, particularly after Kitty and Emma are targeted. I found the denouement to be poignant and all too believable. Once more, Hambly delivers a gripping historical drama featuring a likeable protagonist. Highly recommended for fans of 1920s murder mysteries. While I obtained an arc of One Extra Corpse from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10
I got a ringside seat at the gossip, the constant affairs and some of the problems with the filming – the hilarious rewrites that Emma is asked to make are a running joke throughout the book. I found the world beguiling and wonderfully glamorous – but beneath the glamour lies a darker tone. Having to sleep with the director and/or producer on whichever film she’s on is part of the job, as far as Kitty is concerned – even as a major star. Filming is intensive with actors taking all sorts of stimulants to keep going – the most common being bootleg liquor, but there are also drug dealers on set. And action scenes are often horribly dangerous, with horses and extras regularly being injured and sometimes killed, with virtually no consequences, as the film industry at this time isn’t held to account.
So when there is a murder during the filming of a major explosion – the studio is determined to pin the crime on the first person who discovers the body. However, Kitty and Emma aren’t so sure. To be honest – the crime and whodunit wasn’t a major consideration for me, as I was dazzled by the vividness of the world Hambly depicts. It rings true, too. Having read David Niven’s wonderful autobiography, The Moon’s a Balloon, I got a similar sense of a hectic lifestyle where people were determined to have a good time, no matter what.
That said, the murder mystery does steadily become more important, particularly after Kitty and Emma are targeted. I found the denouement to be poignant and all too believable. Once more, Hambly delivers a gripping historical drama featuring a likeable protagonist. Highly recommended for fans of 1920s murder mysteries. While I obtained an arc of One Extra Corpse from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10
November 8, 2023
I've read quite a few novels set in 1920s Hollywood, but this had a very unique voice. It seemed to be very well-researched: it used specific terms that sounded genuine to the era if different from what we would say today (for example, she used scenario instead of script). It presented life on stage in a way that I never thought of but makes a lot of sense for the time (the scenes where actors and extras worked on stage, or depicting how the stages were built rang very genuine). Everything was similar and yet different from everything I've read so far in novels set in 1920s Hollywood - and I really enjoyed this.
The cast of characters was very interesting, and the recurring cast was endearing. I wish I had read the first novel when I had the chance.
Thing is, the blurb didn't present the book properly, in my opinion. I read this one by chance, and I remember skipping the first because it gave me a sense of romance more than anything else. The blurb for this one felt the same! The story is more about the mystery and the historical setting than romance.
If there was something that didn't convince me completely, it was the mystery. I couldn't figure out anything while reading (and this is not necessarily bad), but even when it was revealed, it sounded too convoluted.
More than one thread intertwined - something I see is becoming common in recent mysteries - and I'm not sure it was necessary. It ended up feeling unlikely and over the top, which is a pity, seen as the rest of the book sounds so realistic.
The end was kind of problematic, in my opinion, and it didn't completely convince me.
But apart from these final notes, it was a very enjoyable book, well-written.
I'd just add, as a personal note, that I was surprised to read Barbara Hambly. When I saw her name, I thought, wait, what? The fantasy writer?
I remembered her name from my teenage years when I devoured fantasy books like I eat bread. I had to google her, and yes, it's the same person.
It was such a funny feeling to find someone from so long ago (well, for me) and in a new environment. But it was nice.
The cast of characters was very interesting, and the recurring cast was endearing. I wish I had read the first novel when I had the chance.
Thing is, the blurb didn't present the book properly, in my opinion. I read this one by chance, and I remember skipping the first because it gave me a sense of romance more than anything else. The blurb for this one felt the same! The story is more about the mystery and the historical setting than romance.
If there was something that didn't convince me completely, it was the mystery. I couldn't figure out anything while reading (and this is not necessarily bad), but even when it was revealed, it sounded too convoluted.
More than one thread intertwined - something I see is becoming common in recent mysteries - and I'm not sure it was necessary. It ended up feeling unlikely and over the top, which is a pity, seen as the rest of the book sounds so realistic.
The end was kind of problematic, in my opinion, and it didn't completely convince me.
But apart from these final notes, it was a very enjoyable book, well-written.
I'd just add, as a personal note, that I was surprised to read Barbara Hambly. When I saw her name, I thought, wait, what? The fantasy writer?
I remembered her name from my teenage years when I devoured fantasy books like I eat bread. I had to google her, and yes, it's the same person.
It was such a funny feeling to find someone from so long ago (well, for me) and in a new environment. But it was nice.
February 4, 2023
One Extra Corpse is the second entry in Hambly's Silver Screen mystery series. Emma's husband died in WWI and, after losing her parents and brother as well, she eventually ends up in Los Angeles with her sister in law Kitty, a gorgeous and untalented star of silent film. This is a light and a well-researched, well-written and well-plotted mystery. Without risking spoilers, Hambly examines the early days of the studio system where stars were made because of how they looked. We learn about the common practice of ensuring notoriously gay actors appear in public with "romantic" people of the opposite sex. Extras were were so expendable that they risked life and limb to appear in crowd scened involving guns or explosives. The casting couch entry to the profession was definitely in place. Hollywood was a small, small town when it came to knowing everyone's business. Hambly weaves in famous actors and directors whose backstories are known to us. Emma has a cameraman boyfriend, Zal. It's been four years since she left England and this budding relationship has potential, but she sometimes longs to be back in England continuing her studies at Oxford. In addition to serving as Kitty's assistant, Emma has work as a screenwriter. This could be problematic as her knowledge of ancient history is frequently set aside when, for example she's instructed to make a character Christian in a period falling eighty years before the birth of Jesus. I enjoyed this enough to buy the first book in the series so I can fill in the back story. Fun characters, fun geographical background, fun locale, interesting resolution to the murder. Definitely recommend.
February 27, 2023
Thanks to the careful research done by the author you will find yourself catapulted into the Roaring Twenties consisting of glamour, gossip and intrigue set on the sets of the firsts silent film movies. Right from the start you will be well aware of the careful research done by the author: infact you will be clear about all the enormous work done by those behind the camera or how the sets were dangerous places for the extras,who in order to ensure the success of the scene,put their lives at risk.
The mystery part,on the other hand,presents the clues and characters evenly distributed thus managing to skillfully intertwine the secondary storylines with the main one thus making it more intricate and dense. I also really liked the way Emma managed to solve the mystery precisely because it was natural,gradual and full of twists and turns!
At first I had a bit of a hard time steering behind all the characters and their back aground, but going forward it turned out to be an electrifying , sparkling , historically accurate and guilt-filled read within the landscape of an ever-changing industry. In the end I want to thank netgalley for the arc copy
The mystery part,on the other hand,presents the clues and characters evenly distributed thus managing to skillfully intertwine the secondary storylines with the main one thus making it more intricate and dense. I also really liked the way Emma managed to solve the mystery precisely because it was natural,gradual and full of twists and turns!
At first I had a bit of a hard time steering behind all the characters and their back aground, but going forward it turned out to be an electrifying , sparkling , historically accurate and guilt-filled read within the landscape of an ever-changing industry. In the end I want to thank netgalley for the arc copy
February 21, 2023
There were things I liked and things I didn't like. As with the first in the series, you can tell the author has done a lot of research on Hollywood in the silent film era, and how film sets worked. And with the studio system comes a series of moral dilemmas that Emma, and the other characters, must face about what type of behavior is necessary to "make it" in Hollywood, and if they can handle it.
I thought the plot was a bit meandering. It didn't feel quite as focused, and it's never really explained why Emma gets involved in solving this mystery. The first is obvious - because Kitty is accused, and Kitty is her sister-in-law, she starts investigating on her own. But she doesn't really know the accused or the murder victim in this one, and I'm left to assume that it's just a sense of justice spurring her on. But it's never said.
Still, I enjoyed this book and I look forward to the next in the series.
I thought the plot was a bit meandering. It didn't feel quite as focused, and it's never really explained why Emma gets involved in solving this mystery. The first is obvious - because Kitty is accused, and Kitty is her sister-in-law, she starts investigating on her own. But she doesn't really know the accused or the murder victim in this one, and I'm left to assume that it's just a sense of justice spurring her on. But it's never said.
Still, I enjoyed this book and I look forward to the next in the series.
November 15, 2023
I thoroughly enjoyed the first Silver Screen book, A Scandal in Babylon, and immediately eagerly dug into this one. I was not disappointed. Emma Blackstone, Kitty Flint and Zal have a fresh mystery -- or possibly set of mysteries -- to solve, starting with a murder on a movie set. As before, Emma and Zal do their best to figure things out, especially as danger starts to follow them. And Kitty -- I LOVE Kitty -- once again proves to be both flighty and clever, a woman who has Seen Too Much and Done Too Much, and can change a tire in high heels in the dead of night.
Part of the delight in these books is the love letter within to California dreaming, to the desert hills around LA, and most of all to the silent film era of Hollywood. If you want to know more, you could start with Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger, but there are plenty of books on the history of the film industry you might try.
Part of the delight in these books is the love letter within to California dreaming, to the desert hills around LA, and most of all to the silent film era of Hollywood. If you want to know more, you could start with Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger, but there are plenty of books on the history of the film industry you might try.
February 11, 2023
I received an advance copy of this book from Netgalley. Other reviewers have supplied synopses of the plot and setting, and I will not repeat their efforts.
I've enjoyed some of Barbara Hambly's sci-fi and fantasy books in the past and was glad to find this series. This is the second story in the Silver Screen Historical Mysteries, set in the Hollywood of the roaring 20s. I had read the earlier book and enjoyed it enough to want to read the second one. I have to confess, I had some difficulty following the various names, nicknames, stage names and aliases of some of the characters, which made it challenging to follow the plot at times, but I blame that on my own lack of ability to concentrate. No spoilers here, but the plot took a twist toward the end that I didn't see coming. All in all, an enjoyable read, which I can happily recommend.
I've enjoyed some of Barbara Hambly's sci-fi and fantasy books in the past and was glad to find this series. This is the second story in the Silver Screen Historical Mysteries, set in the Hollywood of the roaring 20s. I had read the earlier book and enjoyed it enough to want to read the second one. I have to confess, I had some difficulty following the various names, nicknames, stage names and aliases of some of the characters, which made it challenging to follow the plot at times, but I blame that on my own lack of ability to concentrate. No spoilers here, but the plot took a twist toward the end that I didn't see coming. All in all, an enjoyable read, which I can happily recommend.
June 25, 2023
English widow Emma Blackstone had decided to stay in Hollywood instead of returning to England. Still acting as personal assistant to her sister-in-law Kitty Flint (beautiful but a terrible actress), who stars in some of Hollywood's big pictures. Emma is now also called in to write scripts for the very historically inaccurate historical dramas that are popular. A well-known director is killed on-set just after saying he must tell Kitty something both secret and important. Who killed him? Is his secret the reason? Is it his private or his professional life that is at the heart of the mystery. Emma and her friend Zal Rokatansky, who works behind the cameras, work to find out.
Interesting view of Hollywood in the 1920s. I like the main characters.
Recommended series.
Interesting view of Hollywood in the 1920s. I like the main characters.
Recommended series.
February 27, 2023
The second Emma Blackstone silver screen mystery kept this reader following right along. Emma is feeling more in control and less like a ship adrift. Kitty plays her part to perfection and Zal is a steadying influence on them both. The mystery of who killed the director is very nicely done with plenty of appropriate clues scattered about. The setting of the story in the midst of the first Red scare and the splintering of the Communist world was an interesting element that added depth to the story. Plenty of action and the chase sequence was very nicely done. In all a very good read!
Thanks Netgalley and Severn House for the opportunity to read this title!
Thanks Netgalley and Severn House for the opportunity to read this title!
April 1, 2023
Barbara Hambly's newest series is set in the early days of Hollywood. The glamour and glitz of the movie industry hide dirty secrets, potential scandals, and now murder. Kitty Flint, movie star, and her brainy sister-in-law Emma Blackstone are swept up into the murder of a director on the set of his movie. Everyone seems to want to bury the evidence except for Kitty, Emma, and Emma's cameraman boyfriend.
This novel is sheer fun. I enjoyed riding around 1920's southern California with the characters, and being chased by bootleggers, drug dealers and G-men!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
This novel is sheer fun. I enjoyed riding around 1920's southern California with the characters, and being chased by bootleggers, drug dealers and G-men!
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
July 11, 2023
Reading the latest in Barbara Hambly’s Silver Screen series, and along with rich character development and a tantalizing mystery, she paints a picture of early Hollywood that is dark and brutal beneath the glamour and the glitz. I’ve been a fan of her writing since I read The Time of the Dark in the early 80s—I even have a hardback copy of The Quirnal Hill Affair, which was re-released some years later as Search the Seven Hills—and her meticulous research and attention to historical detail is one of my favorite aspects of her writing. Another is her ability to blend information into the storyline so seamlessly there are no awkward expository lumps to interrupt the narrative.
September 24, 2024
I found myself slowing down as I neared the end of this terrific mystery because I didn't want it to end! There is so much I enjoy in this engaging series: well developed likeable characters, a very puzzling mystery filled with twists and turns, and a fascinating setting and historical background. All in all, I found both books a delight to read.
Did you know that directors in Hollywood's early days actually used live ammunition during their movies, thinking blanks didn't show up well enough??? True - and that many extras and horses were injured and even died during filming!
Very well researched and thoroughly compelling, I truly hope this series continues for a long time!
Did you know that directors in Hollywood's early days actually used live ammunition during their movies, thinking blanks didn't show up well enough??? True - and that many extras and horses were injured and even died during filming!
Very well researched and thoroughly compelling, I truly hope this series continues for a long time!
December 12, 2022
The second in the Silver Screen historical mystery series, this was a fun outing with lots of Hollywood studio gossip, name-dropping of historical figures, the antics of the author's fictional creations, and an interesting mystery with a lot of separate plotlines the author expertly brought together at the conclusion. I particularly enjoyed our heroine' Emma's continued attempts to try to bring logic to increasingly ridiculous suggested plots by the studio directors. A vivid portrait of an industry in a time of change with all the fun of a mystery to solve.
January 5, 2023
I like historical mysteries, and I thought the cover of this book looked eye-catching, so it sparked my interest.
It was different from what I initially expected, but I enjoyed it. From the cover design, I was expecting a story with a dark tone, maybe something leaning towards the Gothic genre.
The story was more light-hearted than I expected, quite fun and quirky. I wouldn't say that the characters were what I initially expected either, but I liked them, and found them amusing.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.
It was different from what I initially expected, but I enjoyed it. From the cover design, I was expecting a story with a dark tone, maybe something leaning towards the Gothic genre.
The story was more light-hearted than I expected, quite fun and quirky. I wouldn't say that the characters were what I initially expected either, but I liked them, and found them amusing.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.
February 14, 2023
Emma's settled into Hollywood, where's she working (more or less) for her sister in law Emma, a not very good actress who is a silver screen star and writing scripts, among other things. She's also working on her relationship with Kai. A murder pulls the three together again to investigate in a world very different from Emma's Oxford-and they discover there's a villain they did not expect. It's nicely atmospheric of the period. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Only the second in the series so entirely fine as a standalone.
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