Monday means it is time for
Kaye George and her latest installment in the “Monday With Kaye” blog series.
This week she is reviewing The Fame
Thief by Timothy Hallinan. I have to confess that this one and earlier
books in the series are still in my TBR pile. Probably time for a speed reading
course…
The Fame Thief by Timothy Hallinan
This is Hallinan’s third entry in the
Junior Bender series. The main character (not really a hero, because heroes are
on the side of justice, right?) is a fun guy to hang out with. He’s a witty
burglar who kept me reading, turning the pages as fast as I could.
As the story starts, he’s been summoned
by Irwin Dressler, a mob boss who controls much of the Hollywood movie
industry, is 93 years old, and dresses like a color-blind golfer. Dressler is
not a man Junior wants to cross, given that the old guy is surrounded by muscle
men and has the ability to send Junior swimming with cement boots firmly in
place. The trouble is, Junior isn’t quite sure what his mission is.
He knows it involves Dolores La Marr,
who, the last time she was seen in public, was one of the most beautiful women
on the planet. Dressler adored her. That was in 1951. Pictures of her cavorting
with gangsters in Las Vegas were enough, in those times, to bring her career to
a screeching halt. Now, sixty years later, most of the people who had a hand in
her downfall are dead, so Junior isn’t quite sure how to go about finding out
who Dressler should wreak his revenge on. And why now? La Marr, when Junior
interviews her in the luxurious apartment she never leaves, is now 83, obese,
and seemingly content to hole up in her 12,000 square feet abode, surrounded by
belligerent, protective Koreans, and a ghost of a previous occupant.
The more Junior finds out, the less
sense it makes. But the threats to his daughter make enough sense for him to
keep digging. Great page turner.
Reviewed by Kaye Georg Author of Death in the Time of Ice for Suspense Magazine
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