Customer Reviews

The Clark Gable and Carole Lombard Murder Case

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Wonderful book, puts you right in the niddle of the era and makes you part of the goings on, I am old enough to remember a lot of these stars and the columnists. The bits of whimsical insight into what was going on behind the scenes is really fun to learn. I worked at Paramount Pictures for two years and this brought it back. Besides I could just hear Enda Mae Oliver saying "Mr. Dick what shall we do with this boy" or "you evil woman" to Madame Defarge in Tale of Two Two Cities. Wonderful book.

This book was an immense disappointment. The vivid personalities of Carole Lombard and Clark Gable might have lent themselves to any number of marvelous plot situations. Unfortunately, author Baxt chose to write Miss Lombard as a giggling dingbat (the words "tee hee hee" are scattered liberally throughout) with the wit of a gnat. Poor Clark Gable doesn't fare any better. This mystery inspires the question, "Whodunnit?" Unfortunately, the author GEORGE BAXT "dunnit" ~ and he done it all over Carole Lombard and Clark Gable. What a misbegotten mess.

I'm not that sorry to see the end of Baxt's celebrity murder case series. The books are not bad stories, but not great either. I did like the many glimpses I got of famous starts from the 30's and 40's. In this book, I particularly enjoyed Groucho Marx and W.C. Fields. As I read the books, I found that I picked up a lot of celebrity gossip, as Baxt appears to be intimately acquainted with these glamourous people. In this book Carole and Clark try to help Detective Villon find one of Carole's missing protégés, who had been kidnapped. While everyone is working on this case, a body of a man washes ashore at celebrity beach party. Could these two seemingly unrelated instances be connected? Carole thinks so, and puts her considerable intelligence to work to help the police find Lydia Austin, and to determine who killed the gangster that washed up on the beach. It was not a bad story, with Baxt's trademark satire liberally sprinkled throughout. For anyone who is interested in this golden era in Hollywood, this series will be worth the time.

Though not one of Baxt's strongest (I would heartily recommend The Dorothy Parker Murder Case), there is enough clever dialogue and delightful dish to carry you through the rather weak plot. Baxt once again takes great joy in raking through the bones of celebrities, exposing the sexual proclivities and excesses of Hollywood stars. I found reading it enjoyable, though not completely satisfying as a murder mystery