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John Milano #1
Star Light, Star Bright
Vintage paperback
185 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
8 people are currently reading
28 people want to read
About the author
Stanley Ellin
162 books40 followersStanley Bernard Ellin was a mystery writer of short stories and novels. He won the Edgar Allan Poe Award three times and the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere once, and in 1981 he was awarded with the Mystery Writers of America's highest honor, the Grand Master Award.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 26, 2017
John Milano is private eye in New York City. He has a new client ... an old flame now married to a very, very rich man. Someone has threatened to kill her personal guru .. a man that Milano knows all too well.
He flies to Florida where Sharon, his old flame, and her husband are hosting some Hollywood types. All of them have motive, but who has been sending the threatening notes?
Milano finds out that everyone is suspect and trying to stay out of the clutches of Sharon while working for husband is more troublesome than you would expect.
The threatened guru refuses to leave and seems to welcome whatever is coming his way. Is he sending notes to himself? All the guests seem to have secrets and sorting out all the lies is leading him all over the place.
This one is a little outdated .. written in 1979, for example ... the use of private eye rather than private investigator. No cell phones, no pagers, even.
But it was well-written, story premise was good. Characters are fully defined. I like Milano... he has a sense of humor, as well as a sense of honor. The Hollywood people were well typed to the beautiful people years ago.
There are lots of suspects .. and it was fun watching Milano catch them all in their lies.
Many thanks to Open Road Integrated Media / Netgalley for the digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
He flies to Florida where Sharon, his old flame, and her husband are hosting some Hollywood types. All of them have motive, but who has been sending the threatening notes?
Milano finds out that everyone is suspect and trying to stay out of the clutches of Sharon while working for husband is more troublesome than you would expect.
The threatened guru refuses to leave and seems to welcome whatever is coming his way. Is he sending notes to himself? All the guests seem to have secrets and sorting out all the lies is leading him all over the place.
This one is a little outdated .. written in 1979, for example ... the use of private eye rather than private investigator. No cell phones, no pagers, even.
But it was well-written, story premise was good. Characters are fully defined. I like Milano... he has a sense of humor, as well as a sense of honor. The Hollywood people were well typed to the beautiful people years ago.
There are lots of suspects .. and it was fun watching Milano catch them all in their lies.
Many thanks to Open Road Integrated Media / Netgalley for the digital copy of this book. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.
October 3, 2018
Another clean and crisply written thriller from Ellin, strong on character, place, and hard-boiled dialogue, and with a denouement that neatly ties all the clues and breadcrumbs together. Just simple, enjoyable craft.
April 8, 2023
Very well paced and twisting story. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
April 13, 2023
Another excellent vintage mystery read. I really liked Milano and how Ellin's told the story. There's one more book to the series and I wish it had continued.
January 29, 2025
Prose style was not for me. DNF 30%.
January 31, 2017
Most mysteries have a murder occurring usually in the first few chapters and the detective finding out the killer in the last few, but Stanley Ellin, a Grand Master mystery writer, has turned this usually plot on its head.
New York detective, John Milano, is offered $20,000 to come to a billionaire’s Florida estate and save the life of a threatened Hollywood guru living on the estate. The problem? This billionaire is married to one of Milano’s old flames, a woman he shacked up with and saved from a gangster’s power three years before.
Milano arrives there to find a lovely secretary he soon becomes interested in, while he learns that his old flame wants him to take her with him when he returns to New York.
But Milano had been burned once by her when that Hollywood guru told her to leave him and marry the billionaire, and Milano is not only wary of her – she wants them to have a baby with one another – but cannot stomach another abandoning.
Does the guru survive? Does Milano resist his old flame? Does the secretary return his love? What is the plot that has brought Milano to Florida?
Curious? Jump on this well honed page turner – if you don’t like it, I will eat your book!
New York detective, John Milano, is offered $20,000 to come to a billionaire’s Florida estate and save the life of a threatened Hollywood guru living on the estate. The problem? This billionaire is married to one of Milano’s old flames, a woman he shacked up with and saved from a gangster’s power three years before.
Milano arrives there to find a lovely secretary he soon becomes interested in, while he learns that his old flame wants him to take her with him when he returns to New York.
But Milano had been burned once by her when that Hollywood guru told her to leave him and marry the billionaire, and Milano is not only wary of her – she wants them to have a baby with one another – but cannot stomach another abandoning.
Does the guru survive? Does Milano resist his old flame? Does the secretary return his love? What is the plot that has brought Milano to Florida?
Curious? Jump on this well honed page turner – if you don’t like it, I will eat your book!
June 15, 2014
The best thing about this book was it wasn't very long. I forced myself to get through it out of curiosity to see who was causing all the trouble in the Miami mansion. This author reminded me of Agatha Christie, but needs a lot more practice, which I doubt will happen since the book was published in 1979.
July 18, 2016
Bastante entretenido, pero le falto un poco más de fuerza al final; y he llegado a odiarla a Sharon Quits.
Citas: http://hechaensilencio.blogspot.com/2...
Citas: http://hechaensilencio.blogspot.com/2...
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews