- Hardcover: 218 pages
- Publisher: Vhps Trade (April 15 1993)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312093349
- ISBN-13: 978-0312093341
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 14 x 2.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Baxt's seventh Tinseltown celebrity mystery , following last year's The Greta Garbo Murder Case , earns high marks for style and a passing grade for plot. It's New Year's Eve 1931 and a party at the plush Dietrich spread is in full swing. Groucho and Cary and the rest of the crew are there in force, as are the requisite fictional characters who serve as suspects, sleuths and stiffs. The party's featured attraction is Mai Mai Chu, a lady stargazer, who after obliquely predicting the Lindbergh kidnapping and the emergence of Adolf Hitler, fixes her glazed eyes on a group of seven party people and expires--poisoned by strychnine in her glass of bubbly. Cop Herb Villon must sort through the motley septet comprising an aristocratic Russian couple, a violinist, a munitions manufacturer and three others to find the killer. At his best serving up juicy movie lore and sly character studies, Baxt skillfully paints the Hollywood famous as catty, often cute and never less than frighteningly believable. But the surface sparkle doesn't quell our niggling sense that we already know a little too much of the narrative.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Yet another of Baxt's fictional takes on the glamour queens of film history (The Greta Garbo Murder Case, etc.). This time it's Marlene Dietrich, whose celebrity-stuffed New Year's Eve party is interrupted by the poison murder of astrologer-seer Mai-Mai Chu. Dietrich and Mai-Mai's friend Anna May Wong lend their energies and insider clout to Police Inspector Herb Villon, as the case intensifies with the fatal stabbing of waiter Morton Duncan. Mai- Mai's secret astrological charts pinpoint a clutch of recent Hollywood visitors, all party guests--among others, Dong See, a renown violinist; munitions-king Ivartensha; Mussolini admirer Countess Dorothy di Frasso; Hitler confidante/onetime opera-star Brunhilde Messer--all of them engaged in a global conspiracy for power and influence. It takes a third murder to inspire the trap that ends it all, with Dietrich in at the kill. Baxt's predictable mix--a parade of well-researched bygone celebs and resurrected gossip; scads of nasty, banal chitchat, laced with painful puns--but this time with a plot that's livelier and more imaginative than the author's norm: his fans will love it. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Oh that Fabulous Dietrich!,
By
This review is from: The Marlene Dietrich Murder Case (Hardcover)
Marlene Dietrich is the epitome of glamour even in this day and age. There has never been anyone like her in Hollywood. And in this book we see her in all her glory. Baxt's character depictions are very real and are definitely the strong point in his "silver screen mysteries". We also see many cameo appearances by other favourites - Cary Grant, and my personal favourite, Tallulah Bankhead. In this story one of Marlene's guests at a New Year's Eve party is murdered in front of all her gursts. Marlene sets out with Herb Villon to trap a killer, and instead discovers a huge conspiracy that spans the globe. More murders occur, but the fabulous Dietrich actaully gets her man. As I mentioned, one reads these books for Baxt's character portrayals. They are wonderful. He gives us a real insight into these glorious screen legends. The mystery and the intrigue are not so exciting.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)
3.0 out of 5 stars
Oh that Fabulous Dietrich!,
By S. Schwartz "romonko" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Marlene Dietrich Murder Case (Hardcover)
Marlene Dietrich is the epitome of glamour even in this day and age. There has never been anyone like her in Hollywood. And in this book we see her in all her glory. Baxt's character depictions are very real and are definitely the strong point in his "silver screen mysteries". We also see many cameo appearances by other favourites - Cary Grant, and my personal favourite, Tallulah Bankhead. In this story one of Marlene's guests at a New Year's Eve party is murdered in front of all her gursts. Marlene sets out with Herb Villon to trap a killer, and instead discovers a huge conspiracy that spans the globe. More murders occur, but the fabulous Dietrich actaully gets her man. As I mentioned, one reads these books for Baxt's character portrayals. They are wonderful. He gives us a real insight into these glorious screen legends. The mystery and the intrigue are not so exciting.
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