Crescendo
A Lost Hitchcock Film. A Deadly Secret. It's Murder in Hollywood
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Aug 4, 2026
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- $25.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $25.99
Publisher Description
When a struggling mystery writer is hired by Alfred Hitchcock to work on the script for his new film, a swirling maelstrom of madness and murder is his reward.
Hollywood, 1959.
When struggling mystery writer Bobby Burgoyne is hired by Alfred Hitchcock to work on the script for his new film Crescendo, he thinks his future success is assured at last. Instead he is swept into a swirling mystery of madness and revenge. Someone, it seems, is willing to kill to keep the film from being made and Hitch needs Bobby to find who or what is behind the sabotage.
With a ruthless killer in pursuit, Bobby discovers that behind the obscure novel that Hitch has based his movie on lies a cruel tale of abduction, amnesia, and murder. To save his own life as well as Hitch’s career, Bobby must penetrate the heart of the mystery and confront a final, shocking revelation.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this charming Hollywood mystery from Harris (A Study in Crimson), struggling crime author Bobby Burgoyne gets the job of a lifetime when Alfred Hitchcock hires him to write the script for his latest film. Crescendo is an adaptation of the out-of-print dime novel Close to the Edge, which tells the story of an American heiress who goes missing and is found months later, amnesia-stricken and suicidal. Bobby is eager to work on the project, but strange occurrences plague the set, including a crew member being crushed to death by a falling light and a fire on the studio lot. When a stranger breaks into Bobby's office and rips up his copy of Close to the Edge, Bobby is convinced someone is sabotaging the production. He turns to Tess Donovan, his ex-flame and a star reporter at L.A. paper the Clarion, for help, and the two are joined in their investigation by Philip Trimble, the playwright who was working on the Crescendo script before Hitchcock fired him. Harris brings 1950s Tinseltown to life with sparkling dialogue and Easter eggs galore, and the core mystery is gloriously unpredictable. For film buffs, this is a sure thing.
