Monday, December 6, 2010

Hollywood Forever-Susan Goldstein

Hollywood Forever
Susan Goldstein
Five Star, Feb 9 2011, $25.95
ISBN 9781594149337

Beverly Hills matron Samantha Crowley is the forgotten wife of arrogant bestselling author Benjamin Crowley. He wants to rid himself of his spouse for a younger sexier trophy wife. Meanwhile everyday Sam walks in Hollywood Forever Cemetery; where she pays her respects to murder victims, mobster Bugsy Siegel and film director William Desmond Taylor.

Sam helped create her husband’s famous character Hunter McCall; since she developed the star, she feels she should kill the star. Associates of Benjamin die soon after they meet Sam. His publicist Peter Perkal was killed in a hit-and-run; someone poisoned his agent Carol Haber, and novelist Jonathon Harley was stabbed to death. Following a phone call with a woman threating blackmail and demanding he meet her, Jack Sharrow heads to the rendezvous Hollywood Forever Cemetery where the only other person is Sam. He assumes she is his blackmailer so he pulls out a gun while considering killing her.

This terrific suspense thriller runs on two strong elements: a twisting murder mystery and references to historical Hollywood. The spins are incredible and plausible in a case of few degrees of separation; as Sam knows this is Hollywood.

Harriet Klausner

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