Customer Reviews

The Talking Pictures Murder Case

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This is an excellent story. Not only does Baxt provide us with a cracking good murder case, but we really get to see what it was like when Hollywood was set on its ear with Talking pictures as opposed to silents. A lot of people were ruined with this big change, and lots made themselves more famous and more rich, but it was a collosal switch in the way motion pictures were made. The book is set in Hollywood in 1929. In true Baxt fashion we meet a lot of real people from this era (Sam Goldwyn, Hedda Hopper, Mary Pickford) as well as some great fictitious characters like Superintendent Villon and the Darling family. Baxt writes with "tongue in cheek" and his take on the famous Goldwyinisms is hilarious. This book has many surprises throughout. I for one did not have the real murderer and the ending shocked me. Anyway you look at it, reading it was a whole lot of fun.

I didn't like this book as well as I've liked others, but that's mainly because I'm not really familiar with that era of the motion picture industry. The ending was a marvelous surprise- you'll definitely sympathize with the killer- and I came away from this book with a big smile on my face. George Baxt is AWESOME.