- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Canada / Fiction (Dec 12 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0060515848
- ISBN-13: 978-0060515843
- Product Dimensions: 22 x 14.7 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 408 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #2,191,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Bradbury, a legend in his own time, seems never to run out of creative inspiration. He follows up last year's acclaimed From the Dust Returned with a mystery novel that's also a loving, tongue-in-cheek tribute to early Hollywood. Set in 1960, the book features an unnamed science fiction writer ("what if... in some future date people use newspapers or books to start fires," he muses aloud). Late one night (stormy, of course), while he's trying to finish a novel, ancient but still-beautiful screen star Constance Rattigan bursts into his house frantically waving a 1900 Los Angeles telephone directory-the "Book of the Dead," as the writer calls it. Someone has left it at her house, with the names of those still alive circled in red and marked with a sinister cross-her name among them. Is she being marked for death? With his sidekick, Elmo Crumley, the writer dashes from one storied Los Angeles spot to the next, looking for the would-be murderer and warning the others on the list. The tour includes Rattigan's house, set on a nerve-wracking bluff and home to tons of ancient newspapers and a spookily decrepit old man who turns out to be Rattigan's brother, Clarence. Many other eccentrics make an appearance in this whirlwind of staccato dialogue, puns and references to old Hollywood and Chandler-era L.A. noir. Bradbury's giddy pleasure is infectious; though he throws in an unexpected conclusion, it's the author's exuberant voice more than the mystery itself that will have readers hooked.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This atmospheric noir novel from sf great Bradbury has a protagonist who could be a stand-in for the writer, a fast-talking damsel in distress, and a host of other odd characters who live in a decrepit Hollywood full of ghosts from the 1920s and 1930s. The screenwriter hero's proverbial dark and stormy night in 1960 is interrupted by Constance Rattigan, a has-been film star who is terrified that someone is out to kill her and those connected with her past, who confides in him and then disappears. The screenwriter and his detective pals fear for Constance's physical and mental safety as, one by one, her trail leads to dead bodies. Though professing to be a mystery, this book is more about mood than plot, raising larger questions of identity while providing loving descriptions of crepuscular Hollywood landmarks and citizens. The staccato writing style even reflects screen dialog, and Bradbury draws on his adolescence in California to add authenticity. Recommended for all public libraries and those in love with long-ago Hollywood and its lost souls.
--Devon Thomas, Hass MS&L, Ann Arbor, MI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Devon Thomas, Hass MS&L, Ann Arbor, MI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
It was a dark and stormy night. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
It was a dark and stormy night. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable,
By papaphilly (Bayonne, NJ) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Let's All Kill Constance (Mass Market Paperback)
It was a dark and stormy night, so starts "lets all kill Constance". An old Hollywood star shows up at the narrator's doorstep with a book claiming that it is a book of the dead and that every name on the list is eaither dead will be very shortly. Then the Hollywood star disappears into the storm. The narrarator enlists the help of an unwilling friend to find Constance and track down the names in the book. This book is typical Bradbury with the metaphor and is fun to read. He just keeps getting better and better with time. Once again there is more to the eye than is apparent here. Bradbury takes the reader through the Hollywood he remembers with the stars of yesteryear and their over the top lifestyles, but he also shows that it is not all glamour and things do fade with time. Once again as with other of his later works, "Graveyard for Lunatics" the narrator is unnamed (you can guess who it is) and is told in a breathless first person. This is a homage to the 1940's film noir mysteries and is great fun. Highly recommended.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A msytery surrounding old Hollywood told by a master writer,
By gac1003 "gac1003" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Let's All Kill Constance (Mass Market Paperback)
One dark, stormy night in Venice, California, a writer's worked is interrupted when Constance Rattigan, a glamorous movie star of old Hollywood, shows up on his doorstep. Frightened by something following her, she gives the writer two books and disappears. The books are phone registers of old Hollywood, filled with names of stars long dead or waiting to die. Some of the names have been circled and marked with a red cross, including hers. The writer enlists the aid of his friend Crumley and sets off on a trek through Hollywood haunts and memories to save Constance.This is a marvelous mystery, filled with images both real and ethereal, as only Ray Bradbury can conjure them. Hollywood becomes a mysterious and magical place, filled with secrets waiting to be discovered. And, in the midst of these images, he tells the story of a glamorous actress from old Hollywood trying to get away from memories of the past. The characters all have a certain quirkiness about them that makes them fit seamlessly into the novel, whether it's Crumley the faithful friend; Henry, the blind man who used to search old cemeteries with the writer; or the writer himself, nameless but makes you wonder through sublte hints if you actually know him. It's a fast-paced book that I couldn't put down once I started. I felt as if I were right in the thick with the characters as they searched for Constance. Few books can really do that, in my opinion, and this is one of the best.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Strange Tale of Secret Hollywood,
By
This review is from: Let's All Kill Constance (Mass Market Paperback)
Constance Rattigan has received tow old phone/address books filled with the names of dead people. She thinks she is running from death when she runs into the protagonist (an unnamed author). She then disappears into the night.The author becomes worried and, with the help of a strange cast of characters, tries to track down Constance and the names that might still be alive. The quest leads into the history of Constance and Hollywood and literally delves into Hollywood's grim underbelly. This is a strange tale but full of interesting scenes and tales. It is also fun to figure out who the protagonist is. There are plenty of oblique clues. A little different from most of Bradbury's writing, but still with his unmistakable style. A good read for any Bradbury fan.
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