Product Description

Halloween Night, 1954.  A young, film-obsessed scriptwriter has just been hired at one of the great studios.  An anonymous investigation leads from the giant Maximus Films backlot to an eerie graveyard separated from the studio by a single wall.  There he makes a terrifying discovery that thrusts him into a maelstrom of intrigue and mystery -- and into the dizzy exhilaration of the movie industry at the height of its glittering power.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #343154 in Books
• Published on: 2001-07-01
• Released on: 2001-06-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Hollywood, Halloween night, 1954. At a midnight party in a graveyard adjacent to the studio where he works, the sci-fi screenwriter/narrator glimpses the dangling papier-mache corpse (or real body?) of a film magnate presumed killed exactly 20 years earlier. Then a prop man (or his effigy) is hanged, or else is on the run, and another studio hand is murdered. A Beast is loose, attempting to instill panic on the set, perhaps to cover up what really happened two decades ago. Bradbury eventually ties up the loose ends in a loopy funhouse of a novel peopled with a monocled, imperious Austrian-Chinese director; Lenin's ex-makeup man, from the Kremlin; a gaunt, sermonizing actor named Jesus Christ; a feisty ex-movie queen who demands that "J.C." bless her; and other oddballs. Madness, blackmail, murder and mayhem spell tricks and treats as Bradbury toes the fine line between reality and illusion.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA-- A multilevel story about a man for whom the movies have been a childhood obsession, an adult vocation, and ultimately a horrible, mysterious collision of past and present. Set in a Hollywood film studio back lot, the book presents an interweaving of real film stars of the past and of current productions. Vivid descriptions of the studio world and the real world take readers on a fascinating tour of reality and illusion, both superbly drawn. Film buffs will revel in the inside atmosphere, and mystery fans will enjoy the complicated kaleidoscopic plot. Once again, Bradbury combines the real and the imaginary in a fascinating tale. --Peggy Hecklinger, R. E. Lee High School, Springfield, VA
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Bradbury's richly lyrical debut novel Something Wicked This Way Comes (S. & S., 1963) was an expansion of his early short story "Black Ferris." This time he employs elements from "Tyrannosaurus Rex" (anthologized in The Machineries of Joy , LJ 1/1/64) in composing a loose mystery yarn set in 1950s Hollywood. While working as a screenwriter for a major studio, the unnamed narrator (introduced in Death Is a Lonely Business, LJ 3/15/85) becomes embroiled in a bizarre scandal surrounding the alleged death of the studio's founder 20 years earlier. Charismatic heroes and diabolical villains people a surrealistic landscape which only Bradbury could render believable. An irresistible tale which will be in demand, since it's only Bradbury's second novel since 1963. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/90.
- Mark Anni chiarico, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Bradbury continues the magic, this time in Hollywood.
Setting this novel during the glory days of Big Studio Hollywood, in which he himself was an earnest young screenwriter, Ray Bradbury sets out to create a murder mystery in which a twenty years-dead body is found on a ladder leaning against a wall between a graveyard and the movie studio next door. Over-the-top Hollywood characters and wannabes, "beasts" and monsters, and faux settings, such as Notre Dame, Calvary, and even the speaker's grandparents' house in Green Town, Illinois, fill this book with the illusions in which the film industry excels, while the machinations of ego-driven moguls provide motivations for murder.

No one should read this novel expecting a hard-boiled mystery, however. Bradbury's obvious love of people and of life itself is so heartfelt and overwhelming that it makes any sense of toughness unbelievable--and there are many other reasons to enjoy this book. Grounded by Midwestern values, fundamentally decent, and lacking the ego which seems to drive the rest of the industry, Bradbury shines in describing a mad Hollywood, "where great elephant ideas go to die. A graveyard for lunatics," where men so dedicate their lives to the creation of illusions that they often lose sight of reality. His wacky imagination flourishes, and it is clear that despite his sometimes flippant, tongue-in-cheek observations, his irony, and his criticism of Hollywood excess, that he loves the place and the exotic characters he meets there.

With imagery and descriptions that bring to life every aspect of studio activity, trenchant philosophical observations inserted casually (almost as throwaways), self-deprecating humor, and visions of plain folks challenging the studio bigwigs, Bradbury's mystery ambles toward an almost amiable conclusion. For the lover of Bradbury, this is another chance to share his visions and his enthusiasm for a life lived honestly. Most readers will undoubtedly share the feelings of Constance, who tells speaker/Bradbury, "How lucky to be inside your skin...Don't ever change. We stupid doomsayers, cynics, monsters laugh, but we need you. Otherwise, Merlin dies, or a carpenter fixing the Round Table saws it crooked, or the guy who oils the armor substitutes cat pee. Live forever. Promise?" Mary Whipple

Fans of Hollywood History - Rejoice!
WOW! From the moment I saw the cover winking at me in the Cal State Fullerton bookstore 12 years ago, this has been my favorite book af all time! Mr. Bradbury mixes up a concoction of murder, mystery, and the Golden Age of movies and studio heads to delight the reader. His character development and authenticity ring true to anyone who has ever seen a silent film or a great science fiction epic of the 1950's. I just can't say enough about this book! It is one of the few that I take the time to go back and read over and over again like a chance meeting of old, comfortable friends (and according to my grandfather, Herb Hinthorne, Mr. Bradbury used to be the kid in rollerskates all over Hollywood - he often skated into Henry's, an old restaurant on Hollywood Blvd. where my grandfather hung out with his waitress-mom, looking for the movie stars!). Get your hands on a copy of this book, and enjoy!

Incomparable
Another semi-autobiographical mystery written by Ray Bradbury, this sequel to "Death is a Lonely Business" is not only a superb work of fiction, it gives insights into Ray Bradbury's own life. This one centers around Bradbury's days as a screenwriter working with Ray Harryhausen. They look for the perfect monster for their new horror movie, but when they find it they stir up a coverup decades old. The description of a poor disfigured face is phenomenal. A highly recommend this book to any Bradbury fan.