The Glamorous Dead

Early in Gates’s impressive first novel, set in pre-WWII Hollywood, a police detective questions wannabe starlet Penny Harp and real-life film star Barbara “Stany” Stanwyck, who has befriended Penny, outside the Florentine Gardens, “the town’s best revue.” The nude body of Penny’s roommate and best friend, fellow wannabe starlet Rosemary Brown, has been found buried in a passageway behind the Florentine Gardens, minus a thumb. When Penny becomes a suspect in Rosemary’s murder, she turns sleuth to clear her name. Stany lends support as Penny starts sneaking into studio offices and lurking around back lots. When a second actress winds up dead, Penny knows she’s next unless she can uncover the motive behind the murders. Gates skillfully evokes a Hollywood era when the studio chiefs wielded enormous power over the lives of everyone in their orbits and would go to any length to protect their stars and big-budget movies. Glamour takes a back seat to lust, lies, and greed in this well-wrought mystery. [em]Agent: Jennifer Udden, Barry Goldblatt Literary. (Nov.) [/em]