“Imitation of Death” by Cheryl Crane / Monday, December 10, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Today’s featured book is Imitation of Death by Cheryl Crane.

Pruning sheers right in the chest.

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

What could be finer on a cold winter day than a cozy from sunny California?

“Imitation of Death” by Cheryl Crane is the second mystery featuring Nicolette “Nikki” Harper, a Hollywood celebrity realtor who is also the daughter of fictional Hollywood star Victoria Bordeaux (just as author Cheryl Crane is the actual daughter of film legend Lana Turner).

The present-day murder mystery begins with a pair of pruning sheers. Nikki is not a detective by trade, but she can’t help but get involved to defend the gardener she knows in her heart is innocent. Using her influence as the child of a famous Hollywood actress to gain access to her mother’s rolodex, the investigative techniques of the mother / daughter partnership falls somewhere between “Murder She Wrote” and Nancy Drew. I appreciated the purposeful plotting and excellent end revelation, along with the long list of certainly flawed suspects on all echelons of Hollywood social strata.

Just by growing up in that bubble, children of celebrities know many skeletons in the Hollywood closet and Cheryl Crane fictionalizes them delightfully here. A most-enjoyable couple of hours of amateur sleuthing through Beverly Hills.

From the publisher:

“Cheryl Crane, daughter of movie icon Lana Turner, brings her Hollywood insider expertise to the second book in a star-studded mystery series featuring celebrity realtor-turned-sleuth Nikki Harper and her screen goddess mother, Victoria Bordeaux…Nikki Harper is a superstar among Hollywood realtors. Among private investigators however, she’s strictly amateur, and her first case was a Waterworld-sized disaster. But when a body turns up in a dumpster behind Victoria Bordeaux’s mansion, Nikki feels duty-bound to get involved. Before his demise, Eddie Bernard was the uber-privileged son of one of the biggest TV producers of all time, and a spoiled, violent, party-boy loser. The list of people glad to see him gone could stretch from one end of Bel Air to the other. In fact, about the only person Nikki’s sure is innocent is the prime suspect: Jorge Delgado, her childhood friend and the son of Victoria’s housekeeper. With the D.A. and the media throwing the words “death penalty” around, Nikki has to help. Victoria, of course, can’t wait to delve into another Tinseltown scandal, and soon Nikki is submerged in a secret world of celebrity drug-dealing, dangerous cults, conniving stars, illegal aliens and, of all things, the Food Network. With the aid of a voyeuristic neighbour and some good old-fashioned bribery, Nikki starts to close in on the truth. But can she keep Jorge from facing the final curtain…while keeping herself out of a killer’s spotlight?”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join our Facebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville

“Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures” by Emma Straub / Tuesday, October 23, 2012 / Reviewed by Clay Stafford

Today’s featured book is Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures by Emma Straub.

A star is born.

Why Clay Stafford chose this book:

This novel takes me back in time. Maybe it is my own personal past experiences in summer stock, but I was immediately pulled into the setting of “Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures” by Emma Straub. I felt the barn, the family, the summer camp, the carefree life of the young. And the egos. “No one in the theater liked to be around people who were better-looking than they were.” Oh, yes. I recognized the egos.

The story is told from the point of view of Elsa who later becomes Laura Lamont. “Hildegard got to be Hildy, but Elsa only got to be Else, as in Someone Else, a human afterthought.” That is how Elsa’s life starts out: the youngest, the overlooked. A chance suggestion puts her onstage, however. Elsa learns “there was power in pretend.” And she uses it throughout the rest of her career.

The novel is full of great lines. If you’ve spent any time in Hollywood, you’ll recognize the personality types. It is about so many actors and actresses I know who have difficulty separating the reality of a role from the reality of…well…reality. The stretching of the truth. As an ex-actor, some of it is downright painful to read especially the character arc relating to the man she left Wisconsin with. I feel for these poor characters. Even Elsa has a bit of the non-reality to start: “She was going to step off the bus into the waiting arms of the world.”

Hollywood is near a collective main character itself in this novel. You get an introduction to Method Acting, what goes on during movie-making (including the endless waiting), the lives influenced by movie successes and movie flops, the jealousies, and – if you are Hollywood history savvy – you might recognize what could be identifiable composite characters under a different name: Rock Hudson, Jack Warner, Judy Garland, Mickey Rooney, Louis B. Mayer, Lucille Ball. And, of course, there is Irving Green, the Hollywood Boy Wonder. “Irving Green had an idea every thirty-five seconds.” It’s not difficult to see the personage of Irving Green to be a representation of Irving Thalberg.

“Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures” is one woman’s lifetime saga with exhilarating peaks and painful valleys within the ever-changing evolution of Hollywood itself. If a reader finds the main character’s choices a bit mercurial at times, it is probably because same reader has never dated an actress. The plot is straightforward and Straub attempts to cover a lot of ground in the 300 or so pages. And, not giving anything away, the story goes full circle. “Was it possible that she’d finally gotten old, when she had always been the youngest?” Old Hollywood was a grand and glorious place. I can see what attracted Straub to the subject.

From Amazon:

“The enchanting story of a midwestern girl who escapes a family tragedy and is remade as a movie star during Hollywood’s golden age.

In 1920, Elsa Emerson, the youngest and blondest of three sisters, is born in idyllic Door County, Wisconsin. Her family owns the Cherry County Playhouse, and more than anything, Elsa relishes appearing onstage, where she soaks up the approval of her father and the embrace of the audience. But when tragedy strikes her family, her acting becomes more than a child¹s game of pretend.

While still in her teens, Elsa marries and flees to Los Angeles. There she is discovered by Irving Green, one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood, who refashions her as a serious, exotic brunette and renames her Laura Lamont. Irving becomes Laura’s great love; she becomes an Academy Award­-winning actress—and a genuine movie star. Laura experiences all the glamour and extravagance of the heady pinnacle of stardom in the studio-system era, but ultimately her story is a timeless one of a woman trying to balance career, family, and personal happiness, all while remaining true to herself.

Ambitious and richly imagined, Laura Lamont’s Life in Pictures is as intimate – and as bigger-than-life – as the great films of the golden age of Hollywood. Written with warmth and verve, it confirms Emma Straub’s reputation as one of the most exciting new talents in fiction.”

If you want to make your own comments on this selection, we would love to hear from you. Join ourFacebook Killer Nashville group page or our blog and join in the discussion.

Remember that these books are listed at a discount through Amazon. You also don’t have to purchase the version that is featured here. Many of these books are available in multiple formats: e–book, hardcover, softcover, and audio. Enjoy!

– Clay Stafford, Founder of Killer Nashville