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Welcome to Hollywood of the 1920s: a world filled with glamour, fake names . . . and the occasional felony!
July, 1924. After nine months of living in Hollywood and working as a companion to her beautiful silent-movie star sister-in-law, young British widow Emma Blackstone is settling into her new role: doctoring film scenarios whenever the regular scenarist is overwhelmed with work, which seems to be most of the time.
Shoots for the Western movie Our Tiny Miracle are in full swing, with little seven-year-old Susy Sweetchild playing the lead and acting most professionally. Maybe too professionally, Emma thinks, shocked to the core when the child star is nearly killed in a stunt scene and her mother – former screen siren Selina Sutton – seems only to care that Susy gets the job done.
But Emma’s concerns only worsen when news reaches her that Susy and her mother have been kidnapped. The ransom note says to keep the cops out of it, so it’s up to Emma and Kitty to find them before the unthinkable happens and Emma is forced to rewrite Our Tiny Miracle with a far more tragic ending . . .
CW – ethnic slurs are used by villains. Past probable parental abuse is mentioned. Past domestic violence is briefly hinted at. Parties that take place outside Hollywood are mentioned at which things that might not be consensual occur.
Spoiler: Show
Dear Ms. Hambly,
I was giddy when I read that you had another installment in this series and delighted when I got to read it. Poor fish-out-of-water widow Emma Blackstone is still trying to settle into her new life in (Golden Age) Hollywood with her actress sister-in-law, three Pekinese, a cameraman who might be the new love of Emma’s life, and a pseudo career in rewriting scenes for the silent films that are churned out by the gross.
On the latest shoot, Emma sees darling seven year old Susy Sweetchild putting on her game face as she’s endangered for yet another take with a frightened horse and a drunk stuntman. Susy’s only joy seems to be her pet cat Mr. Gray but she’s a trooper and only occasionally lets her terror show. Emma gets sidetracked by a call from an academician (at UCLA) desperate for help due to the sudden death of a colleague who had noted Emma’s presence in LA and knew that Emma had helped her Oxford professor father. Could Emma help sort through the man’s papers and the term papers of his summer students?
Only the next day everything is upended when the studio gets word that Little Susy Sweetchild and her mother have been kidnapped. The newspapers and movie mags are all over it but Emma quickly notes that few people are actually interested in where a terrified child might be and in what it will take to get her back.
Poor Emma has been through a lot since her American Doughboy husband died in WWI, her family died from the Spanish flu, and her sister-in-law Kitty swept through gray Manchester and rescued Emma from the harridan for whom Emma worked. But despite loving Kitty, Kitty’s delightful Pekes, and finding joy with Zal, Emma sometimes longs for what and who she lost. Hollywood has been a learning experience and Emma’s dismayed at what goes on and how used to it she’s getting. There are powerful men running the studios who can ruin careers and blacklist people if too much of a fuss is made over silly things like child labor laws.
Luckily both Kitty and Zal along with many other people working behind the scenes on Kitty’s latest blockbuster in which she is the evil Queen Zahar (Crimson Desert – complete with desert scenes, camels, lions, and tons of extras) are willing to help. All share a dread that – in the background – the studio seems to be weighing whether or not it’s worth it to fork out the ransom to get Susy back.
Twists and turns in the plot kept me guessing whodunnit and why. There are a lot of characters so you need to pay attention to who’s who. The descriptions of the various locations in and around Los Angeles along with the cars, clothes, and how hot it could get without AC put me right there. I’m going to steal my own line from a previous review -there are Black Jasmine, Buttercreme, and Chang Ming who will defend those they love, bark ferociously at those they suspect, and attempt to cage treats and belly rubs from just about everyone. Mr. and Mrs. Shang are back, too.
The mysteries (who has Susy and what happened in the UCLA professor’s office) have a variety of intricate clues to be put together and trails to be followed before All is Solved. Fair warning that there’s a bit of violence here but – glory be – some of the cops and sheriffs are actually set on doing their jobs (although a few will look the other way, when needed, for local bootleggers).
I love how things are cleverly resolved using the skills of many talented (behind the scenes) film makers. The good are rewarded and the bad are shown up. It’s also wonderful to see how Emma (aka “Duchess”) is so highly thought of and that she’s getting paid for all her scene writing work. Looking forward to the next installment! B
~Jayne