Star Struck Dead

Rating:
Summary: Philip Marlowe is Reborn...
Review: I believe that "Star Struck Dead" is Sheila York's first novel. It is a terrific one! Think of a mystery that takes you back in time to Hollywood's golden era of the 1940's...

The year is 1946, the place is "TinselTown," and Lauren Atwill has had enough. Separated from gorgeous matinee idol, Franklin Atwill, Lauren knows that she is no longer willing to endure his countless infidelities. Waking up, bruised and scraped from the ill-effects of the night before, Lauren discovers herself in a hospital room. She is baffled as to why anyone would have abducted her on her way home. Her jewelry and money have been taken, but she has not been harmed physically - only drugged. When she receives compromising photos of herself, she learns that she is just one of the many victims of a blackmailing gang.

In a town where careers are broken like hearts, Lauren hooks up with streets smart, private eye - Peter Winslow to discover who is behind these incriminating setups.

The plot is complex, but so refreshingly solid that few readers will see this ending coming!

Now, imagine a writer that can style her writing to that sort of "Raymond Chandlerish" use of deadpan humor. ["A few women in very short skirts and very high heels were walking in pairs up and down the pavement...They were probably just waiting for their husbands."]Wow! Sheila York is great at this.

Her descriptive use of truly unique metaphors(?) only adds to her brand of writing. Some phrases were so good that they just amazed me. "Except for the soft brushing of the wind in the eucalyptus, it was quiet."

I have a feeling that Laura Atwill is going to be one of my favorite characters. I hope that York is hard at work!

Rating:
Summary: Philip Marlowe is Reborn...
Review: I believe that "Star Struck Dead" is Sheila York's first novel. It is a terrific one! Think of a mystery that takes you back in time to Hollywood's golden era of the 1940's...

The year is 1946, the place is "TinselTown," and Lauren Atwill has had enough. Separated from gorgeous matinee idol, Franklin Atwill, Lauren knows that she is no longer willing to endure his countless infidelities. Waking up, bruised and scraped from the ill-effects of the night before, Lauren discovers herself in a hospital room. She is baffled as to why anyone would have abducted her on her way home. Her jewelry and money have been taken, but she has not been harmed physically - only drugged. When she receives compromising photos of herself, she learns that she is just one of the many victims of a blackmailing gang.

In a town where careers are broken like hearts, Lauren hooks up with streets smart, private eye - Peter Winslow to discover who is behind these incriminating setups.

The plot is complex, but so refreshingly solid that few readers will see this ending coming!

Now, imagine a writer that can style her writing to that sort of "Raymond Chandlerish" use of deadpan humor. ["A few women in very short skirts and very high heels were walking in pairs up and down the pavement...They were probably just waiting for their husbands."]Wow! Sheila York is great at this.

Her descriptive use of truly unique metaphors(?) only adds to her brand of writing. Some phrases were so good that they just amazed me. "Except for the soft brushing of the wind in the eucalyptus, it was quiet."

I have a feeling that Laura Atwill is going to be one of my favorite characters. I hope that York is hard at work!

Rating:
Summary: Philip Marlowe is Reborn...
Review: I believe that "Star Struck Dead" is Sheila York's first novel. It is a terrific one! Think of a mystery that takes you back in time to Hollywood's golden era of the 1940's...

The year is 1946, the place is "TinselTown," and Lauren Atwill has had enough. Separated from gorgeous matinee idol, Franklin Atwill, Lauren knows that she is no longer willing to endure his countless infidelities. Waking up, bruised and scraped from the ill-effects of the night before, Lauren discovers herself in a hospital room. She is baffled as to why anyone would have abducted her on her way home. Her jewelry and money have been taken, but she has not been harmed physically - only drugged. When she receives compromising photos of herself, she learns that she is just one of the many victims of a blackmailing gang.

In a town where careers are broken like hearts, Lauren hooks up with streets smart, private eye - Peter Winslow to discover who is behind these incriminating setups.

The plot is complex, but so refreshingly solid that few readers will see this ending coming!

Now, imagine a writer that can style her writing to that sort of "Raymond Chandlerish" use of deadpan humor. ["A few women in very short skirts and very high heels were walking in pairs up and down the pavement...They were probably just waiting for their husbands."]Wow! Sheila York is great at this.

Her descriptive use of truly unique metaphors(?) only adds to her brand of writing. Some phrases were so good that they just amazed me. "Except for the soft brushing of the wind in the eucalyptus, it was quiet."

I have a feeling that Laura Atwill is going to be one of my favorite characters. I hope that York is hard at work!

Rating:
Summary: This book should be a contender for an award
Review: This book made me want to go back and read mysteries from the era that this story was set in -- the period just after World War II has ended. The setting is Hollywood, and McCarthyism is just starting to rear its ugly head.

The "heroine/detective" is Lauren Atwell, a screenwriter who is independently wealthy and separated from her famous actor husband. It is a time when a separated woman can go to parties with someone other than her husband but wouldn't dare be caught in the act of adultery -- she'd lose everything financially and socially.

The theme of the mystery is blackmail in Hollywood, where appearances are everything and no-one cares what you're doing as long as it doesn't become public knowledge. The blackmailers first attempt to blackmail Lauren, and although she is not susceptible, from that she begins to suspect that some of the Hollywood crowd she knows are also being blackmailed. There are a series of murders somehow related to the blackmail. Lauren gets involved in trying to sort this mess out before someone she cares about gets falsely accused of murder.

What's not to like? Well,frankly, the plot was so complicated that after a while, I was having a very hard time keeping it all straight -- trying to remember who someone was, or what had been said fifty pages ago that was being referred to. You'd need to take notes, I found myself thinking, to sort it all out.

What's to like? Although complicated, the plot is impeccable; the characters for the most part not only vivid and interesting, but likeable; and the atmosphere created makes you feel like you've gone back in time and space to Hollywood in the late 40s. The quality of writing is excellent -- it's a very literate book. This is the kind of mystery that creates a mood and that you can hardly wait to get back to. I look forward to reading the next in the series. I expect this book to pick up some awards, like an Edgar.

Rating:
Summary: This book should be a contender for an award
Review: This book made me want to go back and read mysteries from the era that this story was set in -- the period just after World War II has ended. The setting is Hollywood, and McCarthyism is just starting to rear its ugly head.

The "heroine/detective" is Lauren Atwell, a screenwriter who is independently wealthy and separated from her famous actor husband. It is a time when a separated woman can go to parties with someone other than her husband but wouldn't dare be caught in the act of adultery -- she'd lose everything financially and socially.

The theme of the mystery is blackmail in Hollywood, where appearances are everything and no-one cares what you're doing as long as it doesn't become public knowledge. The blackmailers first attempt to blackmail Lauren, and although she is not susceptible, from that she begins to suspect that some of the Hollywood crowd she knows are also being blackmailed. There are a series of murders somehow related to the blackmail. Lauren gets involved in trying to sort this mess out before someone she cares about gets falsely accused of murder.

What's not to like? Well,frankly, the plot was so complicated that after a while, I was having a very hard time keeping it all straight -- trying to remember who someone was, or what had been said fifty pages ago that was being referred to. You'd need to take notes, I found myself thinking, to sort it all out.

What's to like? Although complicated, the plot is impeccable; the characters for the most part not only vivid and interesting, but likeable; and the atmosphere created makes you feel like you've gone back in time and space to Hollywood in the late 40s. The quality of writing is excellent -- it's a very literate book. This is the kind of mystery that creates a mood and that you can hardly wait to get back to. I look forward to reading the next in the series. I expect this book to pick up some awards, like an Edgar.

Rating:
Summary: Vivid as a movie
Review: This is an impressive and entertaining debut of a new amateur sleuth.

Sheila York presents a well written and well paced story set in Los Angeles during the film noir era. But though it is a book each of the story's settings are so ably described that they are as vivid as a movie which is appropriate given the Hollywood characters. The heroine, Lauren Atwill, is a screenwriter married to a matinee idol and inhabits Hollywood society. She is smart, capable, nearly fearless, and admirable.

Despite the plain language there is a lot packed into these pages. The author shares not only action, but describes Lauren's visions, thoughts and sensations. Nuances are revealed with compact references to how a character moved a hand or delivered a line. Well edited or self-edited the writing is appealing.

The plot has as many twists and turns as Topanga Canyon Road. Each of the dozen characters could be the culprit and suspicion is thrown from one to another with every new corpse. And physical events are realistic--fights are not only punishing, but exhausting and those who are hurt have injuries that last for many pages.

Personal relationships are sensitively portrayed. Lauren's mannerisms are different when she is with her estranged husband, her best friend, her trusted maid, and her private investigator who, in time, becomes her on-off intimate. And, with a few exceptions and within the limitations of such a book, the characters are not one-dimensional.

The writing, the story, the characters, the setting, the relationships are all so satisfying that this book deserves to be savored even though it is a page turner of the first order. Its sequel would have to be sensational to avoid the curse that often befalls a remake. Enjoy this one first and try not to devour it in one pleasurable sitting.

Rating:
Summary: Plot is fast-paced with plenty of action
Review: World War II is over, the men are home and life returns to normal or what passes for normalcy in Hollywood. Screenwriter Lauren Atwell is driving home when she stops to see if she can help a person in a car that seem to have some trouble. She looks in the vehicle, but the next thing she knows she awakens in the hospital. The doctor and the police tell her that she was found in an alley.

Lauren knows she was drugged not drunk as the police believe but she has no proof so she lets the matter drop. A few days after the incident a man comes to her with pictures of her and an unknown man in lewd positions. The blackmailer wants money, which Lauren is not prepared to fork over until she finds out her married friend is also being blackmailed as is her estranged husband's girlfriend. Determined to put an end to the blackmailing, Lauren hires PI Peter Winslow to find out who is running the ring. Every time they think they get close, a dead body turns up. They realize that someone is not hesitant about murdering anyone who gets in the way.

The heroine of STAR STRUCK DEAD is a spunky independent woman who doesn't need a man to define her identity, an oddity in the late 1940's. Actual stars that lived in that era make cameo appearances adding authenticity to the setting. The plot is fast-paced with plenty of action and a lot of sizzle between the heroine and the private invesigator. Sheila York has started a good amateur sleuth series and this reviewer will be interested to see the protagonist in future novels.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Plot is fast-paced with plenty of action
Review: World War II is over, the men are home and life returns to normal or what passes for normalcy in Hollywood. Screenwriter Lauren Atwell is driving home when she stops to see if she can help a person in a car that seem to have some trouble. She looks in the vehicle, but the next thing she knows she awakens in the hospital. The doctor and the police tell her that she was found in an alley.

Lauren knows she was drugged not drunk as the police believe but she has no proof so she lets the matter drop. A few days after the incident a man comes to her with pictures of her and an unknown man in lewd positions. The blackmailer wants money, which Lauren is not prepared to fork over until she finds out her married friend is also being blackmailed as is her estranged husband's girlfriend. Determined to put an end to the blackmailing, Lauren hires PI Peter Winslow to find out who is running the ring. Every time they think they get close, a dead body turns up. They realize that someone is not hesitant about murdering anyone who gets in the way.

The heroine of STAR STRUCK DEAD is a spunky independent woman who doesn't need a man to define her identity, an oddity in the late 1940's. Actual stars that lived in that era make cameo appearances adding authenticity to the setting. The plot is fast-paced with plenty of action and a lot of sizzle between the heroine and the private invesigator. Sheila York has started a good amateur sleuth series and this reviewer will be interested to see the protagonist in future novels.

Harriet Klausner