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Murder Mytery

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY

(YELLOWSTONE FILM RANCH/RENEGADE ENTERTAINMENT/RLJ ENTERTAINMENT (127 minutes; Unrated); 2022)

If you’ve spent any time here at all, you probably know that I’m a sucker for Westerns – movies (RUSTLERS’ RHAPSODY being my favorite), television series (HAVE GUN – WILL TRAVEL does it for me), comic books, novels and non-fiction. Anything at all that could be deemed a “Western” is pretty much okay in my book. So, when the chance to review a new flick called MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY hit my email, I jumped on it. I was not disappointed!

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (ISAIAH MUSTAFA, RICHARD DREYFUSS) (publicity still)

In the opening sequence, there are a few of the familiar “Western” tropes to set the mood and the scene for the rest of the film. There is, of course, the appearance of a stranger in town… a quiet, observant, somewhat moody stranger who quotes Shakespeare. As this stranger (played with brooding intensity by Isaiah Mustafa) approaches Yellowstone City, Montana, he is stopped dead in his tracks (well… his horse’s tracks) by an explosion. That explosion turns out to be a nightmare for the stranger: One Robert Dunnigan (Zach McGowan in a small but integral role, though he does appear more after his death than before) was blowing open a long-closed gold mine and, hitting the mother lode, begins making tracks to his shack in the woods. His ramshackle abode was merely a stopping off place so he could tell his wife, Emma (Scottie Thompson), that he found gold and he was heading to town.

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (ZACH MCGOWAN, AIMEE GARCIA, EMMA KENNEY, ISAIAH MUSTAFA) (publicity still)

In town, the preacher, Thaddeus Murphy (Thomas Jane), rings the bell for the Sunday morning call-to-worship. Sheriff James Ambrose (Gabriel Bryne), looking for his son (Nat Wolff), finds him in the saloon (which, apparently, is also the town hotel, brothel and bathhouse). With the help of one of the working women, Isabel (Aimee Garcia), Ambrose rousts Jimmy from a hand of poker and into the church. Shortly after, the stranger rides into town, eyed by every person not inside the house of worship. Looking for a room, he is directed to the saloon, where he recites Shakespeare with one of the saloon owners, Edgar (Richard Dreyfuss), who tells him to be careful because the townfolk don’t understand anything but plain and simple. Inside the church, Pastor Murphy is just beginning his sermon as Mister Dunnigan rides into town, guns blazing, yelling that he’s struck it rich. After buying almost the entire town a round and offering the men jobs at his mine, he heads upstairs for a roll with his favorite girl, Isabel. All the while, the stranger sits in a corner alone, taking everything in. When one of the men demands payment for a past gambling debt, it looks like Robert Dunnigan’s celebration may be short-lived and the stranger’s hand automatically goes to his holster. Cooler heads (and the sheriff’s gun pointed between the gambler’s eyes) prevail and the party continues. Headed home after a hard day’s drinking and carousing, someone takes a potshot at Dunnigan, shooting his horse out from under him; obviously in fear of losing his gold, Dunnigan keeps a rapid-fire string of questions, pleas and bargaining opportunities aimed at his attacker while unloading both of his pistols in the general direction of where the shots came from. Of course, all of this shouting makes it that much easier for his assailant to find him in the dark. Taking aim, the shooter hits poor Robert in the back but, just to make sure he’s done the job, he slits his throat for good measure. Now, once his body is found, the sheriff and his deputies are certain of the killer. I mean, there’s only one new man in town so… it must be him, right? And, of course, the stranger’s refusal to speak and the fact that he had money only added to Sheriff Ambrose’s belief that he had his man.

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (ANNA CAMP) (publicity still)

Amidst all of the death and brutality (and there is a LOT!), there are some truly sweet moments in MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY. These mostly involve Pastor Murphy’s wife, Alice (Anna Camp), a woman who takes the “ministering” aspect of Christianity to heart, holding Bible studies with the women of Yellowstone City (including the “working” women of the brothel, holding the meetings at their place of business), visiting the sick and, of course, the stranger in his cell. Another pure soul, Violet Running Horse (Tanaya Beatty), was orphaned when a band of white men burned her family’s village and killed everyone in it; Edgar and his partner, Mickey (John Ales), looking for a better life out west, found the child when they happened upon the carnage, nursed her back to health and raised her. Violet operates the livery stables and is the first person the (as yet nameless) stranger meets. After a short exchange regarding the talismans hanging from the man’s saddle and, naturally, the length of his stay in town, the care of his horse and belongings, as well as where he can get a drink and a room. As mentioned earlier, she points him in the direction of the hotel/saloon. All of this obviously takes place right after Dunnigan disrupts the quiet Sunday morning. The next night, Robert Dunnigan is dead and the stranger is arrested. Violet realizes that he could not have killed Dunnigan because his horse and saddle had not been touched since he left them in her care; unimpressed, Sheriff Ambrose thanks her for the information but tells her that there are other ways for a man to get out of town.

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (ISABELLA RUBY) (publicity still)

Aside from Edgar, the next person the stranger speaks to is Alice Murphy. The preacher’s wife, after having told her husband that he may be good at sermonizing but not at ministering, was there to minister to a soul in need. Alice asks the man his name. “Cicero,” is his reply. “Cicero? Like the philosopher?” Cicero explains that it is the name of a character in a play who delivers a speech that he dreams of reciting. He also tells Alice that, as a former slave, he has no family and no family name… he raised himself. The preacher’s wife is the moral compass in Yellowstone City, gently prodding her husband to do the right thing. The same morning that she tells him that she’s going to visit the prisoner, a gunshot rings out. It’s one of Isabel’s (yes… THAT Isabel) charges, an orphan girl named Josephine (or Josie, played by newcomer Isabella Ruby) shooting at cans in the cemetery. Thaddeus says, “It’s Josephine. You know, she could use a little ministering, too.” With a smile and a laugh, Alice tells him “What she could use is a father or… someone like that she could look up to.” Getting the point, the good parson heads out to the graveyard:

“You shouldn’t be shootin’ at graves.”

Ain’t like I’m hittin’ it.”

“You’re tryin’ too hard… you’re waiting for the gunfire. It’s not about the violence.”

“It is violent. It’s a rifle.”

As the preacher tells her to relax and helps her adjust how she’s holding, aiming and firing the weapon, Josie asks, “What do you know about guns?” A question that will be answered later in the film. As she takes aim once more, she actually hits the headstone where she placed her target. “Ain’t there somewhere better around here we can shoot?”

“That man killed my father.”

“Go ahead then.” The next shot hits the can. “Let’s set ‘em up.” It’s one of the sweet moments that make MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY more than your typical Western or “who done it” murder mysteries. The young Miss Ruby has several career-making scenes and Josephine proves to be much more than the Bible quoting young lady we first meet. During the forty minute shootout that ends the story proper, she is wounded and does quite a bit of damage herself.

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (JOHN ALES, DANNY BOHNEN, GABRIEL BYRNE, LEW TEMPLE, NAT WOLFF) (publicity still)

Throughout the film, the body count continues to rise… and unfortunately, for the prisoner, the night of the second murder (more throat slitting), the deputy in charge of watching over him is otherwise occupied with one of the ladies from the saloon and, thus occupied, doesn’t hear someone come in and unlock the cell door, allowing the prisoner to “escape.” Of course, sensing that he was being railroaded and, more than likely, headed to the gallows, he took the opportunity to get out of Yellowstone.

MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY (THOMAS JANE) (publicity still)

Dunnigan continues to appear, first stinking up the church before his burial and later, after being disinterred by Murphy, as what could be considered the first case of forensic exploration ever performed; the preacher is now certain that Cicero could not have been Dunnigan’s murderer because the bullet he retrieved from the corpse was not fired from the kind of gun that the stranger uses. Things pick up considerably from that point leading to the already mentioned gunfight. As this is just as much a murder mystery as it is a straight Western, I don’t want to give too much away so… just let me say that MURDER AT YELLOWSTONE CITY reminds me of one of my all-time favorite movies – Western or otherwise – 1968’s FIVE CARD STUD starring Dean Martin, Robert Mitchum and Roddy McDowell. I wholeheartedly recommend this dark, engaging film. A star-filled cast doesn’t hurt its chances of reaching a wider audience than most recent Westerns have enjoyed and a strong script by Eric Belgau and deft genre-wise direction by Richard Gray makes it one of the best films of the year.

HANK STEINER, MONSTER DETECTIVE, ISSUE ONE

(Scott R Schmidt/Tyler Sowles/Sara Sowles; 32 pages; SOURCE POINT PRESS; 2014)

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Hard boiled film noir detective meets things that go bump in the night in the premiere issue of HANK STEINER, MONSTER DETECTIVE; or, maybe a more apt description for the minions of the monster underworld would be “things that get bumped off in the night.”

HANK STEINER, MONSTER DETECTIVE Page 5 (Written by SCOTT R SCHMIDT, art by TYLER SOWLES and SARA SOWLES)
HANK STEINER, MONSTER DETECTIVE Page 5 (Written by SCOTT R SCHMIDT, art by TYLER SOWLES and SARA SOWLES)

Hank’s Tower City mirrors a world divided; there’s the Human Side and the Monster Side. Both communities would like nothing better than that the twain never should meet. This first issue begins with – as all great detective stories should – a body. The desecrated body of something… not human has been pulled out of the river that separates the two sides of the city. The police on the Human Side grouse and grumble about having to handle a suspicious death from the other side, especially during the playoffs; the detective in charge is not about to miss the playoffs, so he’s called in back-up from the Monster Side: “Stand down, fellas, that’s a pal of mine, Frank.” Well, close… “It’s Hank.” In true noir fashion, our hero delivers a running inner-monologue-as-therapy, beginning here: “I hate humans. Comedians, every one.” Detective Steiner quickly identifies the putrid remains: “Looks like you fellas got yourselves what used to be an imp.” Equally as quick, the human cops dump the case on Hank, telling him to “Take him with you when you’re done.”

HANK STEINER, MONSTER DETECTIVE Page 9 (Written by SCOTT R SCHMIDT, art by TYLER SOWLES and SARA SOWLES)
HANK STEINER, MONSTER DETECTIVE Page 9 (Written by SCOTT R SCHMIDT, art by TYLER SOWLES and SARA SOWLES)

Back across the bridge, we meet Hank’s operatives, including his secretary, Iris, and a human informant (and garbage man) named Gus. The garbage man’s trash talk (literally) leads the big guy to some underhanded dealings coming from the goblin underworld boss, a fat, cigar-chomping Mafioso called Madtooth. Action comes fast and furious, as Steiner confronts some of Madtooth’s underlings and a trio of vampiric babes in a pool room dive that serves as a front for the mob’s business activities. Of course, Madtooth’s intervention leaves more questions than answers, as he tells Hank that they’re merely the middle men for something far more nefarious than his boys’ illegal shenanigans. Like many of the finest films of the genre, things take a rather unexpected turn, leading to an apt justice being meted out to the criminal element; also mirroring those classic movies, that justice comes in the form of a too-quick resolution. This plot could very easily have been delivered as a multi-issue storyline, fleshing out the characters (recurring and otherwise), the historical background regarding the animosity of the two districts of Tower City and the origins of Hank Steiner’s world.

HANK STEINER, MONSTER DETECTIVE Pages 14-15 (Written by SCOTT R SCHMIDT, art by TYLER SOWLES and SARA SOWLES)
HANK STEINER, MONSTER DETECTIVE Pages 14-15 (Written by SCOTT R SCHMIDT, art by TYLER SOWLES and SARA SOWLES)

But… that’s a trifling complaint. Scott R Schmidt’s story and dialogue is fast-paced and quick-witted. One could almost envision Humphrey Bogart (well… maybe Raymond Massey) in the role of the Monster Detective. Tyler Sowles’ artwork is powerful and uncluttered, with his wife, Sara’s muted colors adding to the overall noir feel of the book (by the way, she is responsible for page layouts and lettering, as well). If Schmidt and the Sowles can deliver high quality stories like this in a consistent manner, the future certainly looks bright for the denizens of Tower City… or, at least as bright as things ever get in Hank Steiner’s world. I personally cannot wait for future installments, hopefully ones that will answer some of my questions about the whos, the hows and the whys of just what is happening in Tower City. HANK STEINER, MONSTER DETECTIVE is available at your favorite comics shop or, you can secure it digitally from DriveThruComics  or Comixology. Now… go ye forth and consume, comics lovers. The fun part of your brain will love you for it.

THE ADVENTURES OF POLLY AND HANDGRAVES: A SINISTER AURA

(Bret M Herholz/Rori Shapiro/Peter Simeti; 74 pages; ALTERNA COMICS; 2008) A REVIEW FROM THE VAULT

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In younger days, my parents and I would gather around the television on Sunday evenings to enjoy a PBS program called MYSTERY!, an anthology of murderous delights hosted by Vincent Price and, later, Diana Rigg. That sentence is relevant to this review on a few levels: First, this story is a murder mystery; second, it features artwork inspired, no doubt, by Edward Gorey, the creator of the original opening animation for the show; third, though the story takes place in Massachusetts, there is something very British – like most of the tales presented on MYSTERY! – about the style of storytelling used here. And, finally, of course, is the fact that the convergence of those first three, added to my already professed enjoyment of the MYSTERY! series, means that I really like A SINISTER AURA and would certainly like to see more of THE ADVENTURES OF POLLY AND HANDGRAVES.

THE ADVENTURES OF POLLY AND HANDGRAVES, page 1 (written by BRET M HERHOLZ, art by BRET M HERHOLZ and RORI SHAPIRO)
THE ADVENTURES OF POLLY AND HANDGRAVES, page 1 (written by BRET M HERHOLZ, art by BRET M HERHOLZ and RORI SHAPIRO)

The story itself is “loosely based on real events” that occurred in 1899, updated here to 1929 and featuring the fictional amateur sleuths Polly Plum and her very prim, very proper, very British valet, Montgolfier Handgraves. As befits such a tale, it is a dark and stormy night as the pair seek refuge from the inclement weather in a small town just outside Worcester. The intrigue is well underway upon their arrival, as the police have arrived at the Hampstead mansion across from the inn. It would seem that the Hampstead’s only son, Lionel, on the virtual doorstep of matrimony to Ivy Proust, the eldest daughter of the town’s other leading family, has committed suicide because, according to newspaper headlines, he was “to timid to marry.” Miss Plum is, apparently, much more than an amateur sleuth, as she begins to have visions of two men, one with a wound amazingly like the one suffered by the younger Hampstead. The visitors find the police to be vague, tight-lipped and just a bit shady. With minor subterfuge from Handgraves, Polly sneaks past the local constabulary and into the Hampstead home to investigate the scene of Lionel’s demise. Unfortunately for Polly, the one police officer who senses that all is not right, Detective Fiske, catches her moments before the man of the house walks into the room. Outraged, Mister Hampstead demands Polly’s removal. As the case moves into a second night, Polly has another dream of another supposed suicide, this time Ivy Proust’s mother; Fiske contacts her to join him at the cemetery, the scene of the… incident. Things begin to fall into place after Handgraves interviews a person close to both victims and Polly and Fiske confront Hampstead once more. The wrap up is quite satisfying without cutting any corners.

THE ADVENTURES OF POLLY AND HANDGRAVES, page 2 (written by BRET M HERHOLZ, art by BRET M HERHOLZ and RORI SHAPIRO)
THE ADVENTURES OF POLLY AND HANDGRAVES, page 2 (written by BRET M HERHOLZ, art by BRET M HERHOLZ and RORI SHAPIRO)

Herholz’ home town history and his imaginative retelling of the story goes a long way toward proving that much of the best comics and graphic novel material is coming from independent sources like the phenomenal Alterna Comics. Likewise, Bret’s art (ably aided by Rori Shapiro’s gray tones and the unique lettering style of publisher Peter Simeti) offers something beyond the Manga and drawn-by-a-five-year-old styles that are prevalent in some of the majors’ books (uh… cough, cough… Marvel!… cough). As mentioned above, his style reminds me very much of the masterful Edward Gorey; but, I also see elements of another master of the understated macabre… Charles Aadams himself (something about the eyes and the mouths and, of course, those creepy mansions). At first glance, the art doesn’t seem all that elaborate or complex but, dig a bit deeper and check out those odd perspectives and the minute details hiding in the background ink lines and cross-hatching. Miss Shapiro’s work on the original pen and ink adds a certain eerie depth to Herholz’ stark black and white art, a real plus on this particular story. Bret’s (and Rori’s) work is also on display in several other graphic novel titles from Alterna, including a Sherlock Holmes mystery and an anthology called CONFESSIONS OF A PECULIAR BOY.

THE ADVENTURES OF POLLY AND HANDGRAVES, page 3 (written by BRET M HERHOLZ, art by BRET M HERHOLZ and RORI SHAPIRO)
THE ADVENTURES OF POLLY AND HANDGRAVES, page 3 (written by BRET M HERHOLZ, art by BRET M HERHOLZ and RORI SHAPIRO)

As for this book, it does come with some “bonus material.” A message from Herholz regarding his desire to do something based around the 1899 murders in his hometown of Spencer, Massachusetts that became the focal point of A SINISTER AURA, in which he takes us through the creative process. Of note is the creation of the fictional members of the story, particularly Polly and Handgraves. It was always Bret‘s intent to make Polly the defacto leader of the pair, with Handgraves becoming, as he puts it, “the and… ” of the team. There’s also a bonus short piece called THE AUSTEREFIELD FAMILY REUNION, another bleak look into family dynamics. This time around, the story reads like a fairy tale and Herholz’ art is unadorned by the gray tones of the title feature, which seems to work best for this peek into the morally corrupt Austerefield clan. Unfortunately, the print version of THE ADVENTURES OF POLLY AND HANDGRAVES: A SINISTER AURA is no longer available but, you can still pick up a digital copy from ComiXology. Do it now… your eyes will thank you (and, by extension, me, so… you’re welcome).

TINSELTOWN: MURDER, MORPHINE, AND MADNESS AT THE DAWN OF HOLLYWOOD

(William J Mann; 463 pages; HARPER BOOKS/HARPER-COLLINS PUBLISHERS; 2014)

9780062242167

William J Mann’s new book is an historical, scholarly and meticulously researched look at the earliest days of Hollywood that reads like one of the best murder mysteries you’re likely to come across this year. The story delves into the lengths that an entire industry would go to to cover up a scandal… any scandal. As “moving pictures” or “flickers,” as they were called, began to take hold of a public looking for the next new thing in entertainment, there were no rules; churches and civic groups didn’t like that and began crusades to censor the industry in hopes of crippling it to the point that it would fold in upon itself and just go away. Those moguls who were making money hand over fist were, naturally, not inclined to let that happen.

TINSELTOWN (William Desmond Taylor) (publicity photo)
TINSELTOWN (William Desmond Taylor) (publicity photo)

Beginning in 1917, and through 1923, drugs, suicide, murder, rape and lasciviousness of every nature befell the motion picture industry, as the hard-living individuals who appeared on the nation’s silver screens carried on their private lives. In retrospect, these things were happening in virtually every walk of life but, the utility worker down the street stepping out on his wife wasn’t as glamorous or newsworthy as Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle’s reportedly drunken soiree where a young actress named Virginia Rappe was one of the guests. Arbuckle was, famously, accused of raping the young woman in a drunken stupor, his enormous weight causing her bladder to rupture, leading to her death. The courts (and three separate juries – the first two unable to come to a verdict) eventually acquitted Arbuckle of all charges, but his career was, ostensibly, over from the time he opened the door of his hotel room to the revelers on that day in September, 1921 when Virginia Rappe took ill. He was brought back to Paramount Studios on a probationary status; the studio released one of the movies Fatty had made before his arrest and all seemed well… until the 1920s’ version of the thought police threatened to close down every theater that would show such filth as a Fatty Arbuckle comedy. The Roscoe Arbuckle story and trial play as a backdrop to the real tale here.

TINSELTOWN (BRIGHT LIGHTS title card with Mabel Normand and Roscoe Arbuckle)
TINSELTOWN (BRIGHT LIGHTS title card with Mabel Normand and Roscoe Arbuckle)

Hollywood, in the ’20s, was a very different place than it is today; the movie industry was definitely more concerned with the public’s opinions of their stars. Paying off newspaper editors to keep their stars’ names out of the headlines, covering up evidence and flat out lying to the authorities was standard operating procedures from studio heads (one, in particular, Adolph Zukor of Famous Players-Lasky, later Paramount, was especially adept at keeping the tarnish off of his stars). One of the foremost directors of this early era of movie-making was William Desmond Taylor; Billy, as the ladies called him, worked for Zukor. Sometime around eight in the evening of February 1, 1922, Taylor was murdered in his home. The list of suspects in the crime was a crowded one, including stars and former stars of the film industry, friends, employees and former employees of the deceased, the haves and the have-nots and the power players of the Hollywood movie machine. The murder was virtually forgotten until 1964, when one of the original suspects made a dying confession to the son of a neighbor; still, it took years of digging and research before a definitive answer to an eighty year-old mystery could be laid to rest. As ghoulish as it may sound, the fun of this story is wading through the murder and the depravity that led to it. Mann is a master storyteller, delivering a riveting look at the early twentieth century’s movers and hustlers, all the while never losing sight of the facts of the case; sometimes those facts and the wildly over-the-top personalities involved seem far to bizarre to be a true crime story.

TINSELTOWN (Mabel Normand) (publicity photo)
TINSELTOWN (Mabel Normand) (publicity photo)

The suspects include the four notable women in Taylor’s life: Mabel Normand, a hard-living comedy actress (she was alternately known as was “the Queen of Comedy” and “the Female Chaplin”), best known for a series of films co-starring Arbuckle and a very public dalliance with cocaine and other illicit drugs, including bootleg liquor (it was, after all, the height of prohibition); Margaret “Gibby” Gibson, a struggling actress and two-bit scam artist who fell out of favor at the major studios after being arrested for prostitution in 1917, the first of the many scandals to hit the industry over the next six years (she tried to reinvent herself by trimming five years off her age and calling herself Patricia Palmer… she was marginally more successful); Mary Miles Minter, a teenage beauty touted as the “next Mary Pickford,” with an all-consuming schoolgirl crush on Taylor; Charlotte Shelby, a bullying stage mother who had forbidden her daughter, Mary, to see Taylor and threatened Taylor, telling him to keep away from her meal-ticket. Most of the circumstantial evidence suggested that Mary Minter’s mother was the guilty party, a fact exacerbated by a district attorney seemingly protecting her at every turn in the case. As much as the life and foibles of William Desmond Taylor are laid bare here, Mann, likewise, does his due diligence in uncovering even the minutest detail in the lives of these four remarkable women; no stone is left unturned.

TINSELTOWN (Margaret Gibson) (publicity photo)
TINSELTOWN (Margaret Gibson) (publicity photo)

Other candidates included Edward Sands, Taylor’s former valet, who was fired for forgery and other indiscretions (some believed Sands had been blackmailing the director, who’s secret life – lives, actually – would have destroyed him and embroiled the studio in another scandal); Don Osborn, “Blackie” Madsen or any of the other two-bit thugs and confidence men that “Gibby” took up with in her never-ending effort to be “somebody,” which to her, meant someone with an endless supply of cash; an unknown drug dealer that Taylor threw out of Normand’s house after the man tried to sell dope to the recovering addict; one of the many religious zealots who saw Taylor’s life and work as morally abhorrent. Some of the suspects were dismissed out of hand, particularly the cute, little eighteen year-old, Mary Minter, because… well, who ever heard of a little girl killing someone? Others were investigated and cleared, including the first suspect, Taylor’s then-current valet, Henry Peavey; that scenario seemed to make the most sense initially, as Peavy had a record (for soliciting young men for sexual purposes… not only was that illegal, it was “send-a-guy-to-Hell” immoral) and, of course, he was black.

TINSELTOWN (Mary Miles Minter) (publicity photo)
TINSELTOWN (Mary Miles Minter) (publicity photo)

As Mann relates all of the available information, peeling away the layers of cover-ups, lies, innuendo and downright fiction, he breathes life into the long-dead bones of, not only Taylor, but everyone related in any way to the concentric circle of his influence. Obviously, there is much more to this story than I’ve related here; my job is to pique your interest about the book without giving everything away. Any fan of the silent film era, of historic insights into the years leading up to the dawn of what became known as “the Roaring ’20s,” or of a good old murder mystery will find much to like about TINSELTOWN. It would have been very easy to turn this story into a boring, sterile thesis, offering the facts and nothing but the facts in a very precise, analytical fashion. But, then, who would want to read something like that? Certainly not me! Thankfully, William J Mann understood that and, without ignoring evidence and substance in favor of literary glitz, has written what is generally referred to as a “page-turner.”