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SILENT MURDERS
by Mary Miley
Minotaur Books, September 2014
311 pages
$25.99
ISBN: 1250051371


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Following on from her debut, award-winning novel, THE IMPERSONATOR, Mary Miley has taken her main character, a Vaudeville actress, to Hollywood in her second book. Here again, Jessie Beckett finds herself reinventing her life in SILENT MURDERS. She has managed to find a job at the studios of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, where she's filling in for Fairbanks' assistant.

She's soon invited by a Hollywood silent pictures tycoon to one of his studio parties, where along with Fairbanks and Pickford, readers are introduced to a wide range of other real-life Hollywood icons of the 1920s. Despite the good time Jessie and her roommate Myrna Williams (newly renamed Loy) had, the next morning, not one but two murders are uncovered that are linked to the party.

The murders don't stop there, but in an effort to help limit any scandal for the studio, Jessie finds herself playing detective to uncover just who committed these murders and why they occurred. She soon finds herself putting some of her acting skills to work to uncover key clues, but also discovers this places her in a great deal of danger as well.

For those who enjoy historical mysteries, Mary Miley has infused her novel with a great deal of fascinating Hollywood detail, yet never takes attention away from the basic plotline. Perhaps the most distracting aspect of the novel is Miley's tendency to repeat details as characters tell one another what's happening. Otherwise, this is a very enjoyable look at the history and personalities of the 1920s silent movie era.

§ Christine Zibas is a freelance writer and former director of publications for a Chicago nonprofit.

Reviewed by Christine Zibas, November 2014

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