This is a reworking of an old Hambly novel called "Bride of the Rat God". In that novel, the threat was supernatural. This is a straight mystery set in Hollywood just when the idea of talking pictures was making an appearance. I missed the Pekingese dogs turning into Fu dogs at the end of the book, but the sweet little dogs still made an appearance here and did their jobs as protectors without coming to grief themselves.

Basically, Emma Blackstone works as an assistant to her sister-in-law Kitty. Emma's husband died during the First World War and Kitty saved Emma from a lifetime of erasure as a tyrannical old relative's helper. Emma misses her family and educational background of archaeology and Latin and is having difficulty adjusting to dusty, modern, venal Hollywood. But then a guy from Kitty's past pushes his way brutally into the present and is murdered shortly after! Emma loves Kitty despite Kitty's reckless ways and wants to help her get clear of these dangerous deeds.

As usual, Hambly does a superb job with her characters. Her romantic leads always diverge sharply from your average leading man and her heroines are smart and resourceful. I always adore her settings and early Hollywood is certainly a place and time that could be a gold mine for a mystery series. I'm happy to read the next one!

I really tried to get into this mystery series because it was set in Old Hollywood. However, the characters were not really likable and the mystery was pretty predictable. Still, I recommend this fans of cozy historical mysteries!

I loved Barbara Hambly’s Bride of the Rat God, a fantasy set in Roaring 1920s Hollywood. Now she returns to that era, with its glamorous silent film stars, bootleggers, gangsters, drug use, widespread corruption, and the frenzied exuberance that followed World War I. In this story, a murder mystery (without Bride’s supernatural elements) the viewpoint character is Emma, a young British widow who now works as a companion and secretary for her superstar sister-in-law, Kitty. Classically trained, Emma is constantly affronted by the wildly inaccurate movie scripts (Kitty is currently starring in The Empress of Babylon), many of which she is called upon to rewrite on the spur of the moment. She’s also embarked on a possible new romance with cameraman Zak. To complicate matters further, Kitty’s real life is as melodramatic as her screen characters. She is a generous person for all her antics, especially loving to her three adorable Pekinese. When Kitty’s dissolute ex-husband, Rex, is found murdered, it looks very much as if someone is trying to set Kitty up to take the blame and is doing a very bad job of it. A deliberately bad job?

Drenched in atmosphere and fascinating historical details, featuring vivid characters and snappy dialog, Scandal in Babylon is Hambly at the top of her form. The pacing and depth of the scenes are wonderful, just the right combination of page-turning action, whodunit tension, and moments of reflection and personal growth.

Rumor has it that Scandal in Babylon will be the first of a new series. If so, sign me up!

Scandal in Babylon by Barbara Hambly is a reworking of her fantasy novel Bride of the Rat God as a straightforward historical mystery set in 1920s Hollywood. I was always sorry there weren’t sequels to Bride of the Rat God, so this made me very happy, and I hope it turns into another series. British scholar Emma Blackstone was widowed by World War One and lost her parents and brother to the 1918 influenza pandemic; she now works as a secretary for her sister-in-law, lovable and extravagant silent film star Kitty Flint/Camille de la Rose, as well as caring for Kitty’s three Pekinese. Emma has a budding romance with calm and competent cameraman Zal Rokatansky, who’s clearly head over heels for her but patient with a slow paced relationship. The mystery revolves around a murder that seems a clear attempt at framing Kitty; so clear, in fact, that it’s suspicious. I enjoyed the mystery but was really in it for the delicious specific details of making silent films, from “motion picture yellow” foundation makeup to editing of title cards to vivid cameo appearances by Gloria Swanson. Like in Hambly’s Benjamin January series, the ensemble cast is catnip to me as well.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book, in return for a fair and honest review.

My first Barbara Hambly books were the 1980s Darwath series, an interesting combo of fantasy and horror. I then dipped into some of her other fantasy series, then started reading the Benjamin January series - historical mysteries, without any fantasy elements. While I'll always have a soft spot for the Darwath books, Ms. Hambly has smoothly written in other genres as well, so I was delighted to receive an ARC of this historical mystery.

The plot is not particularly startling - Kitty, a rather feckless movie star gets herself into all sorts of trouble, mainly because of her overactive libido and fondness for good looking and/or rich men! But, she also has an extremely kind heart, and Emma, the actual heroine of the story, is an example of this. Emma is her impoverished widowed sister-in-law, who was forced into rather awful employment as a companion, when her husband, brother, and parents all died, leaving nothing for her to live on.

Emma is a sensible, quick thinking, woman, who is also a scholar and apparently a pretty good screenwriter, being called upon to make quick fixes in the script, to deal with problems that arise. She is also quite devoted to Kitty, and, with the help of Zal, the main cameraman on the set of the movie in which Kitty is staring, committed to helping Kitty get out of the troubles she finds herself in. Kitty is being clumsily framed for murder, and Emma becomes heavily involved in trying to determine what exactly is going on, and who's responsible.

I enjoyed reading this book - it flowed nicely, I liked the characters, and thought there were interesting takes on the time - a nice bootlegger who helped Emma get the info she needed, movie stars vying to be the most outrageous in the eyes of the scandal sheets, starlets who would do pretty much anything to become the mistress of the studio head!

It's not profound, but it's fun - I very much enjoyed it!

Highly recommended, un-put-downable historical mystery set in the Golden Age of Hollywood. I've read a few in this setting, but the prolific Barbara Hambley knocks it out of the park. One of my favorite authors, I've read her from The Dark, to January Benjamin, and now Scandal. I cannot wait for the next book in the series.

Capturing the spirit of the times from the first page, this mystery features Emma Blackstone, a Roman and Latin scholar enticed to Hollywood, after the death of her husband, by her movie star sister-in-law, Kitty Flint, to oversee script revisions. Overflowing with Hollywood “It”, the wildly impulsive, mercurial Kitty is almost the worst actress in the world, according to Emma, but she loves her all the same, and Kitty is nothing if not stunningly beautiful, trailed by a dizzying array of admirers. Seeing Hollywood’s frenetic madness through Emma’s Oxford-educated British eyes adds an interesting dimension. When Kitty’s estranged ex-husband (one of several) is found in Kitty’s dressing room, shot with Kitty’s gun, Emma and her no-nonsense cameraman boyfriend begin analysing the anomalies of the botched murder scene, clearly meant to discredit Kitty but not to send her to jail. The police are noticeably heavy-footed and more hindrance than help. Kitty’s only defense? – I didn’t do it!

Peppered with a well-rounded supporting cast including a helpful bootlegger and randomly dropped household names from 1920s Hollywood – Swanson, DeMille, Goldwyn, Hearst – the era bursts from the page with cumbersome sets, booming directors, anachronistic props and costumes (gold lamé in Ancient Rome?), over-the-top acting, script changing (Emma hopes audiences can’t lip-read!), sexual melodrama, backstabbing, and outrageous abuse of power. All come together in a tangled web amidst the chaotic hustle-bustle of the film studio. The sensible, much calmer, Latin-quoting Emma compliments the flighty, inconstant Kitty, but that doesn’t make either woman anything other than immensely likeable, and their relationship and fondness is touching. Even Kitty’s three Pekinese play their roles, and Hambly ably balances the seriousness of murder with the substantially less serious excesses of Hollywood without making either one seem trite. Thoroughly engaging.

Welcome to Hollywood, circa 1924, in the heady days before the content crackdown of the Hays Code, and just a few short years before Al Jolson’s famous line in the original Jazz Singer, when the audience first heard an actor in a movie say, “You ain’t heard nothin’ yet.”

Movies may not talk yet, but everyone in the movie industry, from the gossip columnists to the extras, certainly has plenty to say. And as our story begins, they’re all saying it about silent screen temptress Kitty Flint – better known to her legions of fans as Camille de la Rose.

Kitty’s sister-in-law, the young widow Emma Blackstone, isn’t so much a fan as she is a personal assistant, general factotum and confidant to the woman who rescued her from desperation in the form of serving as a paid companion to an ill-tempered, irascible old woman who was driving Emma into an early grave. Literally.

After six months in Tinseltown with Kitty, Emma isn’t sure whether she’s happy or not, fulfilled or not content or not, but she’s sure that Kitty needs her and that taking care of Kitty and her three spoiled Pekingese, writing last-minute scene treatments for Kitty’s movies, has both exhausted her and given her a new lease on life.

At least until someone ends up dead in Kitty’s dressing room, with Kitty unwilling to reveal her alibi – probably because she was two-timing at least two of her powerful and well-heeled lovers with a handsome stagehand. Or so Emma believes, because that’s par for Kitty’s behavior even at the best of times – which this certainly is now.

The dead body belongs to Kitty’s long-absent husband. Or possibly her ex-husband. But whether or not a divorce ever occurred is not the biggest problem that Kitty has to deal with when it comes to her first husband’s death.

He died in her dressing room. He was shot with her gun. She has no alibi. When the police discover sloppily concealed threatening letters between Kitty and Rex, it’s a foregone conclusion that Kitty will be arrested for his murder.

The gossip columnists are going to have a field day. The fire-and-brimstone preaching protestors that surround the studio thank heaven for the ammunition in their fight to censor the movie industry. Kitty’s rivals start circling her like sharks who have spotten chum in the water.

But Emma isn’t so sure that the whole thing adds up nearly as well as the corrupt and incompetent police would like to believe it does. The setup for the crime is meticulously planned. The execution of the crime – and of Rex Festraw – is incredibly sloppy. It doesn’t make sense that Kitty did it, to the point where any competent lawyer is going to get her off – if this case ever comes to trial.

It’s a magician’s trick. Distract the audience with something big and flashy over here, so no one looks at what’s really going on behind the curtain – or under the hat – or being pulled from the magician’s sleeves.

It’s up to Emma to figure out just who the magician is behind this particular trick and why they are out for Kitty – before it’s too late.

Escape Rating A: Scandal in Babylon is simply a delicious read on so many levels. It’s such a juicy, gossipy story, and even if all the characters are fiction, it’s impossible not to wonder if they’re more “fictionalized” than truly imaginary. Certainly there were plenty of real-life scandals in Hollywood in the 1920s, and every decade thereafter, to make this fictional portrayal of that imaginary world wrapped in a fake world keeping the real world at bay feel, well, real.

Emma and Kitty are both survivors, and that’s a big chunk of what bonds their relationship. Emma is English, grew up in the household of an Oxford don, assisted her father with his research into ancient civilizations, attended Oxford herself and planned to follow in her father’s footsteps. Then the war happened and the flu epidemic of 1918 followed on its heels. By the time Emma recovered from her illness her young husband was dead on the battlefields, as was her brother, and her parents were carried off by the flu. She was alone and destitute, the last survivor of a veritable shipwreck that took her family and her future.

Kitty ran away from home, a wild child who made terrible choices in men and jobs and everything else but who kept picking herself up and reinventing herself until she found Hollywood – the ultimate reinvention machine.

Emma and Kitty are holding each other up in more ways than one. But it’s clear that Emma is the brains of this outfit, and it’s her brain that’s needed. She’s the first person who sees the puzzle, and she’s the one who eventually solves it.

But as fascinating as the mystery is – and it certainly is that, complete with oodles of misdirection and a whole net full of tasty red herrings – it’s the portrait of Hollywood in the 1920s, as the star making machinery is being exploited and invented with each new day and new film and new star that makes this story sing and dance.

Even if Kitty can do neither. She doesn’t really need to. Movies haven’t become talkies yet. And whatever Kitty lacks in acting talent, she makes up for in sheer star power. Kitty has “It” whatever “It” is. It’s up to Emma to make sure that she gets to keep it.

One last thing – as I was reading Scandal in Babylon, and wading through all the many scandalous events it touches on, there were three books that it reminded me of, one of which I had to hunt for a bit.

Even though it’s a different war and a different aftermath, Emma Blackstone and Gwen Bainbridge from The Right Sort of Man by Allison Montclair would have gotten along like a house on fire. A Touch of Stardust by Kate Alcott, is set more than a decade later during the filming of Gone with the Wind, but it has a similar feel to it. A story about Tinseltown and its scandals and gossips, as seen through the eyes of someone close to the action but not directly a part of it. And last but not least, The Pirate King by Laurie R. King, set in the same period as Scandal in Babylon and displaying the rackety nature of the fledgling movie industry while murder travels in the wake of an utterly farcical production. One even more farcical, in its way, than the historical farce, Temptress in Babylon, that Kitty is filming.

Scandal in Babylon is billed as the first book in a new Silver Screen Historical Mystery series. While this particular case is over, the way that the story wraps up does leave room for Emma to find herself in the middle of another investigation. And I certainly hope that turns out to be the case!

It was not good per se, but it was enjoyable. It was definitely overwritten and at times confusing, but it was atmospheric and fun and that's really all one is looking for here.

Scandal in Babylon is like meeting a delightful old friend in new clothes - it has the atmosphere, the kind of characters, the relationships that are hard to find today but which I've always enjoyed. Emma, with her tragic war widow backstory and Kitty, who never lets other people's opinions stop her from getting what she wants are both fantastic characters. And the amount of loving detail about Hollywood and Los Angeles in the 1920s that Barbara Hambly weaves into the story is about what I expect from one of my favorite authors.

Hambly, a veteran fantasy and historical fiction writer, Bride of the Rat God, has written the first in a new series (Silver Screen Historical Mystery), which is sure to delight her fans. It's 1924 and Emma Blackstone, a British widow, finds herself in California employed by the celebrated actress, Kitty Flint. The job is not what she had pictured herself doing, but Kitty is also her deceased husband's sister, and she's trying to help Emma. When Kitty's ex-husband (or is he?) turns up dead, his ex-wife, or wife, is the main suspect. Emma does not believe her sister-in-law could have committed murder so she sets out to prove Kitty's innocence.

VERDICT: Hambly is a well-known author with many novels under her belt, but this one feels like a debut. And not the best debut. Emma seems flighty and lacking substance. The story seems to be all style with little to sink your teeth into. Recommended for Hambly fans and those who are interested in 1920's Hollywood.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher, Severn House for this opportunity to review “Scandal in Babylon.” All opinions are my own.

Our heroine, Emma Blackstone helps to solve a murder in Hollywood while contemplating a move back to her home in England, in “Scandal in Babylon,” the first in a new historical mystery series by Barbara Hambly, the author of the excellent Benjamin January books. Will Oxford prove more of a pull?

A very big problem shows up for our big star – a man claiming to be her husband, who supposedly she divorced. Well, since she’s involved with the head of Foremost Productions, this is a problem that needs to go away. And he does – he’s murdered. And Kitty is framed for it. Immediately the studio people want to cover everything up -- just as they would do many times, in real life -- but this by a quirk of fate doesn’t happen. This also being (fictional) Hollywood, Emma will have the chance to do her own sleuthing, added by her own best bud Zal.

At the start we meet many of the players who will loom large in our story, set in 1924 Hollywood, time of the “silents.” Emma is general factotum to her sister-in-law Kitty Flint AKA Camille de la Rose, shining star of the Silver Screen. There’s Zal the cameraman, who’s sweet on Emma. There’s a bumbling but gorgeous PI. Later on, even a gangster. And of course, others from and around the studio, many of whom only have eyes for Kitty, jealous ones and otherwise. And you’ll get an idea of what it mean to be part and parcel of movie life in the 20’s. Wanna be an extra in the silents? No, you probably don’t.

Emma Blackstone starts out as a character oh so subtly, a quiet narrator. She has a backstory that’s filled in as the pages goes by (and quite free with the Latin quotations, which are translated for you, thanks very much), while working to prove her sister-in-law innocent of murder. She does become quite the detective, slipping in to the role surprisingly easy.

Along the way, our author weaves beautiful word pictures for us. We get references to old Hollywood landmarks like the Trocadero, Café Montmartre, and the Coconut Grove. Can you feel the fresh winds swaying the tall Hollywood palms? Smell the heavy makeup under the key lights? You will, after reading “Scandal in Babylon.”

Of course, it’s all a cover-up for what the real story is, what is really behind the whole thing. Emma and Zal take matters into their own hands and save the day. Hooray for Hollywood!

This was a very entertaining book, filled with humor, straightforward crime detection, great dialog and above all, characterization. And a wonderful description of what makes a movie star, as Ms. Hambly has a character say:

“These are people who have what that is, whatever that fire inside is called that brings other people to warm themselves when they bring these stories to life….”

And life goes on in Tinseltown. And Emma makes a decision. Will she leave the klieg lights and the script rewrites and the Canadian gin behind? Oh, and the three Pekingese? You’ll have to read “Scandal in Babylon” to find out.

I've been a fan of Barbara Hambly since I read The Ladies of Mandrigyn and fell in love with her characters, humor, and style of writing.
This is the first in a new historical cozy series and I had a lot of fun in reading it.
Emma is an unusual heroine, an impoverished upper class intellectual who is working with her sister in law, a Hollywood star. I loved her as she's clever and resilient.
The description of Hollywood during the silent film era are vivid and makes you understand how it worked during an age when actress were expected to be role model even if their private life was often quite scandalous.
The mystery is solid, plenty of twists and turns, and it kept me reading and guessing.
Character and plot development are excellent, the historical background is well researched and vivid.
I can't wait to read the next installment, this one is highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I’ve read Barbara Hambly’s books since the 80’s, so I was thrilled to see that she has started a new series set in pre-sound Hollywood. Her fictional biography of Mary Todd Lincoln, The Emancipator’s Wife, is one I’ve recommended repeatedly, but it’s a much more serious book than this frothy and fun Hollywood mystery. Apparently Bride of the Rat God (one of Hambly’s novels I hadn’t read) has many of the same features (the dogs and the British war widow, same time period, but different names), but I can’t speak to how much overlap there is between the two.

Although the Hays Code wouldn’t come about until 1934, the specter of censorship and scandal were haunting actors in the wake of the Fatty Arbuckle trial. The studios weren’t quite as affected in that all publicity was good publicity. So when the (former?) husband of Camille de la Rose, née Kitty Flint, is found shot dead in her trailer, her burgeoning career is threatened, even if she is oblivious to that threat, and her assistant, Emma Blackstone, is determined to clear her name.

The writing is clear and crisp, and the pace fast. Hambly’s ability to sketch memorable characters is at the fore, and there’s never a point where I had to suspend disbelief because of an improbable plot turn—she always does a great job of setting the groundwork so that the turns seem reasonable in the context of the story world. The characters are so believable that I had to double-check that they were all fictional (there is a Foremost Productions, but it wasn’t started until 1990). The larger context of the period, though, is dead on; every time I had a “wait a minute, is that right?” moment, Hambly had her facts in a row.

And that accuracy is pretty important in that there is a delightful running commentary about the historical inaccuracies of Hollywood. The protagonist, Emma Blackstone, is fluent in Latin and perhaps Greek as well, having gone to Oxford and assisted her father’s research. (I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a classical Greek quotation in a light-hearted murder mystery.) As a historical fiction reader who is also a fan of straight history, it tickled me to have the character roll her eyes at the Queen of Babylon going to Rome as it did in the script being filmed in the background of the story.

Readers of cozy mysteries will probably enjoy this as long as they don’t have an issue with salty language; that’s the only thing that made me rate this an R, as there was nothing particularly gory or oppressive about the novel.

Scandal in Babylon foretells a wonderful series from Hambly, and I can’t wait for the next one!

Post coming soon at https://bibliostatic.com/?p=2454

Emma Blackstone, British widow of an American soldier finds herself in 1920's Hollywood when her sister-in-law rescued her from an awful situation. Kitty, known on the Silver Screen as Camille de la Rose, employees her to care for her three Pekinese dogs, on set and generally act as a lady's companion. In the six months of being in Hollywood, Emma has also got a side gig as screen writer/editor, making changes ion the script as needed during a shoot. When former husband of Kitty shows up unexpectedly and he is shot in Kitty's dressing room with forged correspondence hidden about, Emma and Zal (a cameraman) are suspicious. Between the two of them, the studio owner, a millionaire, and a local bootlegger, they cracked the case. Plenty of action, red herrings, and local color to make this a satisfying read.

P.S. If you read Barbara Hambly's The Bride of the Rat God, you will find her first take on a similar situation, but in an urban fantasy setting. Both are good reads!

As I have said before, I love reading about the roaring twenties and the golden age of Hollywood. It is one of my favorite historical eras. This book does not disappoint in setting the scene well. It has all the flavor of the Hollywood of yesteryear, with all the glitz, glamour, scandals and gossip you could ask for. To me this is what makes these stories about this era so enjoyable to read.
I thought the author did a fantastic job of painting a realistic view of what Hollywood was like during this time period. She captures the true essence of glitz and glamour that it was famous for back then. I felt transported in time as I read, I was backstage on the silent movie, or in the small diner with the formica countertops. Gangsters were on the street corners, and gossip flew through the air like fall leaves swirling off a tree. She does such a wonderful job with the details of the era it is a shame that I found the actual storyline, the plot somewhat lacking.
I don't know exactly what it was that put me off of the story itself, I mean everything else was spot on but the story I found lacking, weak. The murder mystery itself wasn't very captivating, or even that much of a mystery. And I found some of the characters to be weak or dull. Maybe because there were so many characters it was hard at times to keep them straight. And it did not help that some of them went by more than one name, which was confusing at best. If not for this I would have given this book a much higher rating, but as it is I can only give 3 stars. It isn't horrible, it does entertain, just not up there with the excitability factor. For a quick, light read, or just to enjoy the backdrop of 1920s Hollywood it is fine, just don't expect a complex mystery to abound!
Thank you to Canongate Books-Severn House and Net Galley for the free ARC of this novel, I am leaving my honest review in return.

Emma is very much a fish out of water now that she's working for her actress sister in law Kitty but she's happy for the first time in a long time. A war widow who's had a series of losses, she's come from Oxford and Hollywood is just so...Hollywood. All is going well until Kitty's first husband Rex is found shot to death in her dressing room. Kitty and love interest Zal find themselves sorting through a lot of issues to get to the truth. To be honest, there's probably a bit too much and too many characters for such a slim novel but that doesn't mean you, like me, won't be engaged. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. I'm looking forward to the next one.

After only a few months at her new position as secretary to silent film star Kitty Flint, Emma Blackstone finds herself contemplating returning home to a life similar to the one she had before the war in London and trying to solve the murder of her employer's ex-husband. All signs point to a frame up job, but why would anyone want to kill Kitty's ex-husband in her dressing room on the lot of Foremost pictures? Emma and her boyfriend Zal, are out to clear Kitty's good name...well, somewhat good name.

I was initially drawn to this book because of its setting: 1920s Hollywood. The plot takes place on a silent film set and the sprawling, budding city that is Los Angeles. Author Barbara Hambly does a great job of building the world. The glitz and glamour of the Hollywood era, as well as the notorious gangster filled streets of prohibition and post WWI life. I really enjoyed the historical elements of this book, however that's truly where my joy for it ended.

I found this novel to be extremely confusing. I think that was mostly due to the amount of characters in the book. Some of whom are talked about throughout but never show up, or who are in a scene for a few seconds and then never to be seen again. Several characters also went by several names including our two main characters Emma who is also called Duchess, and actress Kitty Flint who also goes by Camille de la Rose. It was just too much to keep all the characters straight, and I lost a lot of the connection to each player that I would've had had I been able to keep everyone straight.

I also was underwhelmed by the murder mystery itself. I feel like so much time was given to describing, in extreme detail, certain aspects of the time period and what it was like to live during this period in Hollywood, that I felt the actual elements of the murder plot were just left in the dust. I wasn't satisfied with the culmination of the case, and felt like Emma had to provide the reader with so much exposition in the end in order to make it seem like she had been collecting evidence the entire novel that would've lead to the conclusion she came up with.

Overall, I would recommend this book to readers who are looking to get lost in a Hollywood Golden era novel, but not necessarily for those looking for a great whodunit. I want to thank Canongate Books, Severn House and NetGalley for giving me an advanced copy.

I wanted to like this book so much because I'm a huge fan of Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series. Unfortunately I just couldn't get into the book. After 5 chapters I gave up. The dialogue didn't ring true and the main character didn't capture my imagination or interest.

Thank you Netgalley and Canongate Books for access to this arc.

I will admit when I saw this arc available and read “1924. After six months in Hollywood, young British widow …” I jumped to request it, not bothering to read more of the blurb than this. It was clearly going to be some kind of sequel to “Bride of the Rat God” and that’s all I needed to know. There was squealing and, yes it’s true, Kermit arm flailing in my house when I got the notification that I’d been approved. When I began to read it, I noticed immediately that something was slightly off. The names had (almost) all been changed and there wasn’t a trace of anything supernatural. Hmmm, okay. The characters were obviously the same as in “Bride” but … under new management? Well, I didn’t waste too much time on it but settled in to read.

Once again the Golden Age of Hollywood comes to life as dutiful Emma looks after her sister-in-law’s darling and pampered Pekes – Buttercreme, Chang Ming, and Black Jasmine. Along with that, Emma picks up after Kitty, helps rewrite scenes needed for the constant changes to the films Kitty stars in, has a budding romance with cameraman Zal Rokatansky, and still (at times) dreams of the life and family she lost in England due to the war and influenza. It’s not that Emma doesn’t love her sister-in-law (flighty and slightly self-centered though Kitty may be) and find Hollywood bizarrely fascinating but at times she desperately misses what she knew and feeling totally at home. She is still a bit of a stranger in a strange land.

When someone from Kitty’s past appears who could blackmail Kitty (after all, he knows how old Kitty really is) while the American public is voting for which actress will be named Screen Stories’ “Goddess of the Silver Screen,” Emma springs into damage control action but not quickly enough to avert what could be a public scandal. Oh wait, we’re talking about Hollywood where studio heads dole out massive bribes to dictate to the police what will be investigated and how.

Suddenly Emma is looking at everyone around Kitty with suspicion. Lots of people might have a reason they’d be happy to see Kitty – sorry, Miss Camille de la Rose – toppled as a fan favorite … or worse. As clues and suspects pile up, nothing quite fits together. Elaborate care was taken and much money spent to set some things up but then other clues left at a scene were unbelievably clumsy. Emma has managed to get her sister-in-law to stop using (ubiquitous in Hollywood) cocaine but Kitty still slings back bootlegged booze. Yet a well mannered, silk-suited (though clearly from his accent raised in the poorer section of Brooklyn) businessman who specializes in supplying imported liquor denies any reason to want Kitty arrested. And there’s something that Kitty refuses to disclose despite the fact that it involves the time frame during which the murder took place.

Emma is doing more investigative work than the LAPD and positive that there’s something just beyond the “sight line” (the cut off point on a film stage that the camera won’t cover) that she’s missing. She’s also wrestling with a sudden chance to regain some of what she lost in England. Is there enough in “Hollywood Babylon” to keep her there or could she turn her back on Kitty, not knowing who is behind a murder?

After finishing this book I would love to have seen Hollywood in its silent screen heyday. It’s not just the wild antics of the film stars who were paid enormous salaries but also under tremendous pressure that would be fun to watch. It’s also glimpsing the little pockets of suburbanization still surrounded by orange groves and bean fields which smell of dust and sage. I want to see the sleek Packards and Pierce Arrows, gorgeous beaded dresses, homes with telephone niches, trolley cars, and lunch counters with blue plate specials and wooden phone booths at the end.

Emma’s impeccable manners as well as her early training in the classics by her father stand her in good stead as she deals with gangsters and potential witnesses all while trying to slide all the puzzle pieces into place and make sense of what she knows. I was happy to see Emma’s grief for her past life and family gently blended into her character. Kitty might not be able to act her way out of a paper bag but there’s no denying she’s got “It” – that magical quality that lights up a screen – as well as a fine sense of which actresses in the film are after her job. But the dark places of Kitty’s past still haunt her at times. Zal is a quiet presence ready to set up camera angles as well as rush to Emma’s aid yet still not press her for more. Though a fantastic beta hero, I’d like to see him be a bit more assertive in the future. The pekes are – well they’re Pekinese and described to a “T” as to how they act, think (food!) and move. I was so glad that they, at least, retained their names.

The investigation proceeds in a mannered pace with clues being gathered and events taking place but nothing gets Pointed Out or Hammered Home. Everything needed to discover who dunnit and why is included but astute readers will have to pay close attention. I will freely admit that as the plot rounded the turn for home and began racing down the backstretch, I still hadn’t quite grasped the solution. Yet when Emma began to put it all together, I thought “Of course! It all makes sense.” And yay that there’s nothing Out of the Blue or any villain monologuing required to understand motives. Whew.

I do hope that there will be further adventures for Emma, Zal, Kitty, and the Pekes – among others as I had a blast revisiting them (despite the new names) and this fascinating era of silent movie making when actors could say anything while filming since title cards conveyed what was (supposedly) being said. There are also several wonderful new characters such as Madge Burdon, the director of Kitty’s current picture “Temptress of Babylon” who gives on point stage directions to her actors. Given the hedonism abounding and opportunities for Emma to discover more than a corrupt police force can, I have my fingers crossed. B+