The Empty Glass
A Novel
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3.9 • 72 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
“J. I. Baker takes a bold run into Cain and DeLillo territory and scores.” —Barry Gifford, author of Wild at Heart
In the early-morning hours of August 5, 1962, Los Angeles County deputy coroner Ben Fitzgerald arrives at the home of the world’s most famous movie star, now lying dead in her bedroom. There he discovers The Book of Secrets—Marilyn Monroe’s diary—revealing a doomed love affair with a man she refers to only as “The General.” In the following days, Ben unravels a cover-up that implicates the Kennedys, the Mafia, and the CIA.
Soon the sinister and surreal accounts recorded in The Book bleed into Ben’s own life, and he finds himself trapped—like Monroe—in a deepening paranoid conspiracy. A knockout combination of fact and legend, The Empty Glass is a riveting debut thriller.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
James Ellroy fans will relish Baker's impressive first novel, a dark paranoid thriller. On August 5, 1962, Ben Fitzgerald, an L.A. deputy coroner specializing in suicides, answers a summons to go to the modest Brentwood home of Marilyn Monroe. His colleagues and her friends are keen to classify the movie star's death as a suicide, but Fitzgerald has his doubts, which only intensify after he stumbles across Monroe's diary, loaded with cryptic references to "the General" and Cuba. The possible suspects in a potential murder case won't surprise those versed in the rampant speculation surrounding Monroe's death, but barbed prose makes a familiar story fresh, as does the effective use of flashbacks and flash-forwards, starting with Fitzgerald's account of his shooting of a police captain who tried to get him to swallow a fatal dose of pills. Fluent in the noir idiom, Baker, Cond Nast Traveler's executive editor, maintains the depressing atmospherics throughout.
Customer Reviews
Loved
Loved it , i was hooked !
Hmm
Not what I thought. Could have been better- maybe as a novella.
The Empty Glass
I did not enjoy this book at all. I am a huge fan of Marilyn Monroe and all of the conspiracy theories. This was a poorly written book, and hard to distinguish who was speaking in the book. Confusing! I feel like I wasted my money.