A Murder in Hollywood
Published 2026-10-12 08:40:46
Book info
- Author
- Year 2026
- Genre Mystery
- Format Ebook
- Pages 244
From Michael Crichton writing as John Lange comes a new Hollywood mystery thriller, originally written in 1973 by Crichton but never before published, that will keep you guessing until the very end.
In the glitz and decadence of 1970s Hollywood, an era when sex and drugs were readily available on any movie set, the writer of the next Western blockbuster, Bloodrock, has just been found dead in his motel bathtub. Now publicist Harvey Jason is desperately trying to keep the project on track while the famed Harlow Perkins, a brilliant and ruthless investigator, begins to unravel the mystery and hunt the killer down.
From scorching-hot desert locations to sleazy motel bars, the members of the cast and crew—each one with a very dark secret of their own—will send this case deeper and deeper into a maze of confusion and shadows until the shocking truth is revealed.
Will the murderer be found? Or will the true identity of the killer turn out to be just another Hollywood illusion?
Thoughts
Michael Crichton is my favourite author so I'm always going to pick up a book by him, no matter which era of his it is. This one was a John Lange book, and the fact that it's more than fifty years old and never before published made it even more intriguing!
This book is deftly written so that even in a short space of time you get a real sense of these Hollywood characters. There's a moment where a gorgeous young actress is shooting her debut scene and she's terrible, yet none of the seedy men behind the camera are prepared to tell her. They prefer to keep her sweet for their own purposes. In another scene, there's an argument the producers and director have over what can still be worked on, despite the fact there's been a murder less than 24 hours before. Not a lot of sentimentality in 1970s Hollywood, it seems!
On the flip side, Harlow Perkins, the insurance investigator, feels like an enigma. Like Sherlock and Poirot stories, we're seeing the investigation through the eyes of a 'civilian', publicist Harvey Jason. He, and everyone around him, seems afraid of Perkins and nervous of his intellect. But apart from the fact he's from an insurance company that can deal a significant blow to the movie budget, we don't really know why. He has an aura of genius, but it doesn't feel as earned as, for example, Poirot's. However, Perkins' standoffishness adds to it and he's certainly not afraid of showing his arrogance:
"It is my impression," Perkins said, pacing back and forth in the room, "that in general the stupidest members of society become criminals, and the next stupidest become policemen. That is why the police are able to apprehend criminals from time to time - they are fortunate to be dealing with the only segment of society less intelligent than they are."
This is a really easy book to read. The story gets going immediately and the writing sweeps you along so you can devour it in one or two sittings. I caught some of the clues along the way but I never had the full picture until the reveal at the end.
John Lange wrote pulp fiction books so they're not designed to be deep and meaningful, but I would have liked a bit more to it - more time in this fascinating movie-making world, more time getting to follow Perkins' trains of thought. For what it is, though, it's brilliant and if there were more Perkins books out there, I'd read them. It's a 4 out of 5.
Rating: 4 / 5
