β Scribed by Baxt, George
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Dashiell Hammett's story of The Maltese Falcon comes to life in the witty tenth instalment of George Baxt's popular celebrity mystery series. It's 1941, and in between battles with his third wife, Mayo Methot, Humphrey Bogart is preparing to star with friends Mary Astor and Peter Lorre in what will become one of the jewels of his career. But filming is interrupted before it begins when the Bogarts' own house is ransacked.
All clues indicate that someone is looking for a priceless cornucopia filled with jewels dating from the time of Marco Polo that was once in the possession of Mayo's sea captain father. Similarities to The Maltese Falcon draw Dashiell Hammett and his acerbic lady Lillian Heilman into the chase, and for a while it seems that everyone, from the washed-up silent film actress Karen Barrett to the greyest screen vamp of the twenties Theda Bara, to studio mogul Sam Goldwyn, has had his or her hands on the cornucopia.
But then a murder is discovered, and another, and a third. Who wants the prize badly enough to kill for it? A bossy Italian contessa or her disgruntled lover? The proprietor of an antique shop or his bewigged βdaughterβ Nell? The assistant to Hollywood's trendiest interior designer? Samuel Goldwyn??
Once again Detective Herb Villon, his girlfriend, gossip columnist Hazel Dickson, and his assistant Jim Mallory star alongside the real celebrities in a glamorous story of murder mayhem, and βsuch stuff as dreams are made on.β
Thriller
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
βDanger,β whispered Marlene. βHow exciting!β βDanger from some of your guests.β Anna Mae Wong's eyes were dark with foreboding. βThat is quite possible,β said Marlene. βI've invited the Marx Brothers.β New Year's Eve, 1931: Marlene Dietrich, as the reigning queen of Hollywood, sees fit to throw
This delightful tour de force has Dorothy Parker and Alexander Woollcott heading an all-star cast of Algonquin Round Table regulars, all taking deadly aim and shooting from the quip in a baffling case of murder that springboards with the body of a murdered Ziegfeld beauty found dead in George S. Kau
βMy specialitΓ©. A body in the library." So exclaims Agatha Mallowan, better known as Agatha Christie, to her neighbor Bette Davis at the discovery of the corpse of famous archaeologist (and notorious egoist) Virgil Wynn. Bette has rented Virgil's museum-like mansion in London for a few months o
βIt needs something.β Hitch stared out the window as they passed St Peter's Church, which dated from the eleventh century. Alma waited. She was soon rewarded. His face lit up. βI know what we need. We need a marvelous, brutal, bloody murder! The gorier the better. " The taxi driver cringed and narro
The legendary star Greta Garbo has seen better days than those of World War II, which has all but cut Hollywood off from her films' biggest markets, Europe and Asia. MGM movie mogul Louis B. Mayer informs her that Warner Brothers would like to "borrow" her, to which she replies, characteristically,
βGoodness, what diamonds you have!β Mae smiled. βHoney, goodness had nothinβ to do with it.β The year is 1936, and Mae West has all of Hollywood wrapped around her little finger: a place many a man would kill to be. The legendary' screen siren has, however, one criticβone with deadly fangs in pla