Alive!
A Valentino Mystery
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
Bela Lugosi's Frankenstein screen test puts Valentino in the picture for murder
Everyone knows the Frankenstein monster was played by Boris Karloff. His portrayal is so famous that the play Arsenic and Old Lace was filled with Karloff/monster jokes—even when the part of the monstrously deformed villain was played by another actor. But before Karloff's memorable portrayal, another famous 1930s Hollywood icon, Bela Lugosi, tested for the part of the monster.
The screen test footage was lost for decades, until Valentino, that never-say-die film archivist, gets a hot tip about the whereabouts of the incriminating (for really bad, heavily accented acting) footage. But it comes with a price far greater than the money he'll have to pay. Someone would kill to get that reel of film, and that makes Valentino a mortal obstacle who would rather not die for art. People have already been murdered for the film, and Val doesn't want to push his luck…but boy, that reel is too good to let go….
Enter a crew of steampunk fans. Loving the arcane strangeness that is Valentino's life—not to mention the completely glam prospect of seeing the original filmic Count Dracula as the Frankenstein monster—they will find a way to save Valentino and Lugosi's infamous screen test. Or if they can't do that, have a great party anyway. Val just hopes it's not a wake.…
In Alive!, Loren D. Estleman delivers a mystery that only he can.
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An intriguing McGuffin drives Shamus-winner Estleman's third mystery featuring U.C.L.A. film consultant Valentino (after 2009's Alone). Word reaches Valentino that a print may exist of Bela Lugosi as Frankenstein's monster, a role Lugosi rejected, but that made Karloff's career in the classic 1931 film. The scenes showing Lugosi as the monster may be related to the death of Valentino's estranged friend, alcoholic B-list action actor Craig Hunter, whose repeated calls for help Valentino does his best to ignore. When Hunter is beaten to death after another such call again falls on deaf ears, Valentino feels heartsick. The precise mode of the killing, which included the breaking of both arms above the elbows, points to an L.A. mobster, but the mobster's reason for taking out a hit on Hunter is obscure. Fascinating tidbits of Hollywood lore throughout more than compensate for the over-the-top ending.
