The Ticket Out [Paperback]

Helen Knode (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 2004

Ann Whitehead is sick of her job. She's a movie critic for a counterculture rag in Los Angeles and she needs a break badly. Instead of a break, she gets a murder. A woman dies in Ann's bathtub: the victim is a film school grad and industry hopeful. It's the kind of story Ann was born to write, but the disgraced LAPD detective leading the investigation is determined to stop her. The search for the killer turns into a search for the victim's missing script, the story of another woman murdered in 1944.
Suddenly there are two killers, and a complicated conspiracy spanning decades. Ann is smack in the middle and everyone she meets wants into the film business-whatever the price.
There's never been a thriller hitched as brilliantly to the new underbelly of Hollywood as this one. Helen Knode is a startling and original voice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Film critic Ann Whitehead has a problem. She doesn't find Tom Cruise sexy. She's bored by Harry Potter. She even can't get excited about the new David Lynch movie. The heroine of Knode's debut crime novel is simply fed up with her job and the Los Angeles alternative weekly paper where she works. But there's no quicker cure for ennui than finding a gorgeous blonde corpse in your bathtub. Ann stumbles on the murdered body of film school grad Greta Maria Stenholm in the bathroom of her pool house (where she lives in exchange for minor caretaking of the mansion next door) and becomes obsessed with the case. Though she's stymied in her investigation by Lockwood, a sexy LAPD detective with a shady past, she discovers a second case of murder, blackmail and coverup. This one is from 1944, and it's the subject of a script that Greta had been working on when she died. Knode, an ex-film critic for the L.A. Weekly, juxtaposes Hollywood's golden age and today's entertainment industry, exploring how the city has used and abused the ambitious, beautiful women who flock there. She offers a juicy portrait of contemporary L.A. in which Hollywood's elite kill one another for script ideas and follow secret passages from MGM to a high-end whorehouse. Some of these images feel overly familiar; this is a novel in which the HUAC committee lists resurface and still have currency. Still, Knode's clever, sophisticated plotting packs a punch. L.A. noir fans-and Hollywood buffs-will be rapt.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Ann Whitehead is a burned-out movie critic for a small counterculture newspaper and, like many others in Hollywood, a screenwriter wannabe. She lives in the pool house of a famous old manse and keeps an eye on the place for its consortium of owners. When she discovers the body of an aspiring writer in her bathtub the morning after a big party, Ann begs her boss for a chance to chase a real crime story. He reluctantly agrees, but the detective in charge, singed in a recent scandal, is not thrilled at having the press dogging him. Ann takes off like Nancy Drew, and her search for the killer turns into a search for the victim's missing script about the unsolved murder of a 1944 starlet. Suddenly, there are two murders to solve and a host of movie moguls scrambling to cover their questionable pasts. A former columnist and movie critic for L.A. Weekly and the wife of author James Ellroy, Knode features lots of intriguing backlot history and tales of Hollywood's first generation of the rich and famous linked with those of the present generation who would kill for just one more break. This well-done debut is recommended for most popular fiction collections.
Susan Clifford Braun, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; First edition. edition (January 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156029057
• ISBN-13: 978-0156029056
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,608,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book needed a good editor !, January 21, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Ticket Out (Hardcover)

This debut novel has a lot to recommend it, especially the characterization of its central character, Ann Whitehead, and the people she encounters while investigating the death of an unbalanced screenwriter-wannabe, but all the good stuff is lost in the too-busy plotting and redundant prose. Didn't anyone notice that Ann "runs" everywhere ? and that she continually asks herself a series of mental questions which seem intended to keep the plot twisting around itself. I think with judicious editing this could have been an outstanding debut, but as it is, its a bit of a mess.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Is there competition in the Ellroy house?, December 22, 2002

By 

Legends Fine & Rare Books (Pomona, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ticket Out (Hardcover)

I am so excited with the surge of talented authors publishing in 2003 to compliment such greats like Lehane and Pelecanos all with new titles scheduled for release in spring and early summer. Among the lot I have read so far, and definitely will be on the list of Best of 2003 is The Ticket Out by Helen Knode of LA Weekly fame. The once alternative newspaper's movie critic turns out a stylish novel of crime that plays like a movie inside the mind's internal screen, very vivid images et al.

The story opens with Ann Whitehead, movie critic for a counterculture newspaper restlessly watching a new "Hollywood Blockbuster" .starring a megastar that she has no interest in. She walks out, bored tired angry with the movies that are being made today, but worn Nordic beauty. An odd exchange takes place between them, leaving a strong impression with Ann. Later, Greta is found murdered in Ann's bathtub whilst Ann is asleep upstairs in the mansion. Her murder becomedisliki ng her job, In the same way Ann is meant to write her story, I believe this is the story Helen Knode was meant to write. It is a wonderful foundation upon which to build a fruitful lengthy career.

Knode knows well the turf she speaks of and the roads of Los Angeles she travels down. She surrounds Ann with real flesh and blood both literally and figuratively, her family and friends, the LAPD and detectives, using the chase to catch the murderer to show Ann's growth. I personally enjoyed Knode's mention of my old alma mater, along with places I know & go, and enjoyed seeing them through Ann's eyes.

This thriller has all the ingredients of an instant winner, among readers collectors and surely the Hollywood in-crowd, and without a doubt some producer will come knocking.
This is another of those: DO NOT MENTION THE ENDING!! I am waiting to read whatever this woman writes next, with a secret hope there's more to The Ticket Out.

And one more thing, Helen Knode doesn't need any help from her talented world -renowned husband James Ellroy for whom the work is dedicated. This novel is fabulous!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hoped for better, September 29, 2005

By 

J. Breen (Old Saybrook, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Ticket Out (Paperback)

As a fan of both mystery/crime fiction and movies/movie history, I had high hopes for this book, but must admit that I was quite disappointed. Unlike other reviewers, I didn't think it was too long; indeed, I felt it read quickly and really had me engrossed, waiting for a big payoff. Where I do agree with other reviewers, however, was on the ending: it was a complete headscratcher for me. Were we meant to be left believing that that the main character's father was somehow involved in the murders? I also agree that there were a few too many characters that didn't contribute meaningfully to the plot, e.g. Penny Proft, whose witty repartee (or what was supposed to be witty) really grated, and the LA cop wielding a rubber chicken for laughs when on duty.

Some of the writing was too hyperbolic for me. Example: "I cried for the rest of the night. I cried when I was awake, and I cried in my sleep. I cried so hard in my sleep that I woke myself up again. I hurt my rib crying. I soaked the sheets and blankets crying, and soaked my pajamas crying. At one point I crawled off the couch to find a dry place to lie down." And one thing that really bothered me, given the 2001 setting of the action: Knode refers to a character dialing the phone, and going back and forth all night during the course of a party to use the phone. What Hollywood player wouldn't have a cellphone, to which one wouldn't need to walk back and forth?

Having said all of this, if Knode delivers a sequel, I'll have to read it, if only to understand what happened at the end of this book