From Publishers Weekly
When George Reeves, who had achieved international fame by playing Superman for five years on TV, was found dead by gunshot in 1959, the death was officially recorded as a suicide. According to Kashner and Schoenberger (A Talent for Genius), however, unanswered details about Reeves's demise shroud what in truth was foul play. In this page-turning hybrid of bio and murder mystery, the authors entertainingly pick at the loose ends and point their pens at a killer. Reeves, they show, was hardly as wholesome as his TV image implied. His life was filled with hard-drinking men, manipulative women, mafiosos and a career that plummeted like a comet after The Adventures of Superman went off the air. The authors set down this B movie-style tale with hard-boiled relish. They introduce archetypal sleazebag characters with an entertaining terseness?"Eddie was a tough guy with a heart of tungsten"; "Leonore Lemmon wore the reddest lipstick in New York"?that occasionally veers into cheap Hammett imitations. The well-articulated backdrop of low-budget TV production only enhances the cheesy milieu, however. By laying out Reeves's life before solving the mystery of his death, the authors present the equivalent of a crisp black-and-white TV docudrama, and manage to evoke all the irresistibly creepy nostalgia of a bygone era. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
George Reeves, a failed movie actor, found a measure of fame playing Superman in the 1950s television series. He also achieved notoriety when he was found shot dead in his home in June 1959. Public officials ruled it a suicide, but the authors think otherwise. In researching a biography of Oscar Levant (A Talent for Genius, LJ 5/15/94), they came across material that led them to delve into Reeves's tangled life. At the time of his death, Reeves had just ended a long-running affair with the wife of a powerful executive, who knew and tacitly approved. The authors posit that Reeves was murdered on the orders of the executive, incensed by Reeves's treatment of his wife. Even at 200 pages, this book seems clearly padded, and the writers' attempts at colorful prose are embarrassing. Still, the story is oddly compelling. For larger collections.?Thomas J. Wiener, "Satellite DIRECT," Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews