REVIEW: Death in the Palace by Barbara Hambly
A proposal to die for . . . British widow Emma Blackstone gets mixed up in murder once again in this stunning 1920s historical mystery featuring New York high society, mobsters, and silent-movie stars!
November, 1924. Beautiful silent-movie star Camille de la Rose—Kitty, to her adoring fans—is amused to receive an unusual proposal from an extremely rich stranger. Clark Dexter offers her $50,000 if she will marry and then divorce him.
Young British widow Emma Blackstone, Kitty’s dog walker, companion, and dearest friend, is determined to talk her employer out of it. Emma might have been living in the topsy-turvy world of Hollywood for a year now, but she knows a bad idea when she hears one.
There are disturbing rumors about Mr. Dexter. And when the source of the rumors is found dead in mysterious circumstances, Emma soon finds herself plunged into a disturbing investigation that sees her mixing with New York’s high society, mobsters, and movie stars . . . and a ruthless killer, who’ll stop at nothing to see their evil plan through.
CW/TW – mention of violence against women, use of vulgar period language by people we know to hate, anti-semitism by same
Dear Ms. Hambly,
There are lots of descriptions, lots of moving parts, lots of characters- and a measured pace to include all this while avoiding huge info-dumps to get us the knowledge we need by which will all come together. Eventually. Until then readers need to just settle down, sit back, and wait for it to all happen.
Emma Blackstone, who manages her silver screen star sister-in-law’s life and Kitty’s three Pekes (Chang Ming, Black Jasmine, and Buttercreme) urges Kitty to ignore the bizarre letter sent to her by a wealthy New Yorker in which he asks her to marry him then divorce him in a week for which he’ll pay her $50,000 which, in 1924, isn’t chump change. Later on someone else tells Emma to be sure Kitty doesn’t fall for the money as the situation is dangerous.
Kitty and her screen rival Darlene Golden along with lots of the employees of the studio are headed from LA to New York to film a historical drama that ends up being altered enough to fully qualify as “wallpaper history.” The two screen goddesses also share a studio head’s amorous attention along with the attention of several other men – some wealthy and others handsome. Emma however, has fallen for cameraman Zal who is head over heels for her.
Arriving in New York City, things get weird as they begin filming on a ruined Long Island estate, get tangled up with snooty Society Blue Bloods, have run-ins with gangsters and bootleggers, and that’s all before the murder even takes place. Can Emma, Zal, and yes, Kitty, figure out this tangled knot before someone else ends up dead?
I’ll just go ahead and repeat it – this is an information packed book. A lot of the New York stuff that is painstakingly included and laid out does become pertinent later on. At the LA start of the story though, it seems like things are mentioned just due to research and being interesting enough that it’s a shame not to include it. Also at times keeping all the characters straight is a chore. Still, how can I not love reading names like Rizzo, Boxcar, Slick Eddie, Big Louis, Gas-Bomb Snyder, and Knuckles Gracciola? For those who love them, four of the Marx brothers feature in the story.
In order to be able to get all this info in sans dumping, as I also mentioned the pace is leisurely. Very leisurely. Lots of things happen that at times seem random but which will become clear later on. Patience pants might be needed while reading this.
It is a delight to catch up with Emma, Zal, Kitty, the pekes, and several of the Foremost Pictures staff and actors. They live large, play hard and look after each other as well as seeing to those hotel and railway staff who toil away in the background. The Pekes charm everyone though Buttercreme still prefers to stay in her carry crate when strangers are around. Oh, and we get to meet Zal’s sisters Ruthie and Becca as well as see some remembrances Emma has of her deceased husband Jim and the dark times after 1918. Delicious hot goss is served up about the wealthy of NYC and Long Island. Don’t expect to like too many of them.
I ended up liking this entry into the series but not loving it. Though some information about Golden Age Hollywood is interesting there was a lot of it and a lot of it seemed like fluff. But the murder and the reasons behind it all made sense and I hope we’ll keep getting new books in this series. B-
~Jayne
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