Murder in Hollywood

I have previously reviewed some of the historical crime novels written by Barbara Hambly – see my reviews here and here. The series I had been reading is set in New Orleans at the beginning of the nineteenth century and features characters who are free people of colour at a time and in a place where slave owning is important to the economy. I recommend these books. Now this author has started a new historical crime series which is set in Hollywood just after WW1. Scandal in Babylon is the first book in the series and it involves a murder on a film set.

Emma Blackstone is a British woman who has been saved from a life of widowhood and penury by her sister-in-law Kitty Flint who is a movie star. Now she works for Kitty as an aide and does occasional writing for the studio. She owes Kitty a lot so when it looks like the film star is being framed for the murder of her ex-husband she decides to investigate.

This book balances well the long-term effects of the war and the threat of poverty with the glitz and glamour of the film world. Kitty is a woeful actress but a great star. The inhabitants of the film world are self-obsessed but also well aware of how ruthless they have to be in order to keep their stardom when there is so much competition for their roles. Emma is a sensible young woman who is not dazzled by the movie magic and is able to apply her brains to the puzzle.

I enjoyed this book immensely. I did find that a few too many characters were introduced at the start of the book too quickly but once I got everyone sorted out in my head I was captivated by the world that the author had created and was hoping for Emma to find and keep happiness. This is the start of a new series, as I said, so I am looking forward to reading about these characters again.

I do need to point out, however, that this book shares a lot of similarities with a previous title (published in 1994) by the same author Bride of the Rat God (one of the great all-time titles !). That book has the same setting and the characters are almost the same as those in this book but the crime and its solution have a supernatural explanation. I have no issue with the author reusing her own material but there were times when reading this book that I felt that I had read it before !