Renting Silence

October 17, 2016
In Miley’s highly entertaining third mystery set during the 1920s (after 2014’s Silent Murder), Hollywood “script girl” Jessie Beckett draws on her education in the school of hard knocks as well as her years in vaudeville to track down the killer of a young woman with a taste for blackmail. Jessie’s bosses, movie stars Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Mary Pickford, encourage her investigation after Ruby Glynn, a friend of Miss Pickford’s, is falsely convicted of the crime. Jessie’s quest takes her on trains across a fair amount of the country. Since Prohibition is in force, transporting and stealing booze is big business—and highly dangerous. Meanwhile, Jessie’s sometime lover, once known as the bootleg king of Portland, Ore., claims he’s gone legit, but Jessie isn’t sure. The reader gets a strong sense of what life was like if you were from an outsider group or broke Hollywood’s moral code in public. A middle-of-the-night encounter with the Ku Klux Klan is particularly chilling. All the details of her journey not only advance the story but are fascinating in themselves.

October 1, 2016
An amateur sleuth takes a nostalgic journey straight into danger to solve a Jazz Age murder. Any Hollywood hopeful would envy Jessie Beckett, an assistant script girl for Douglas Fairbanks. She also doubles for Mary Pickford, Americas Sweetheart and Jessies longtime idol. But Jessies job description changes when Mary introduces her to one of the cameramen for the PickfordFairbanks Studios. He was a juror for the murder trial of Ruby Glynn, accused of murdering her rival Lila Walker, and hes haunted because he gave in to pressure to find her guilty. The evidence against Ruby, now facing the gallows, was so compelling that there was no police investigation; now Mary wants Jessie to do what the cops didnt. With some success in outwitting gangsters, a previous gig as an impersonator, and the survivors instincts of someone whos been on her own since she was a child, Jessie (Silent Murders, 2014, etc.) is clearly the right one for the job. Pretending to be interested in renting Lilas newly available boardinghouse suite, she sees the place where Lila was stabbed and Ruby was found in a faint with a bloody knife in her hand. Although Ruby has lost hope, her suitor, a handsome Cuban actor who gets the roles Rudolph Valentino turns down, wants Jessie to clear Rubys name. Jessie finds evidence that Lila was blackmailing various Hollywood luminaries. The identity of one of her targets may be on an old program from the small-time vaudeville circuit Jessie traveled as a child. So she rejoins it as a member of a song-and-dance sister act in hopes of finding someone who remembers the people named on the program. The startling answerand an ageless tale of jealousy and revengeavails her little when, like a runaway train, her fortunes careen from one peril to another before reaching an only partially satisfying conclusion. Despite an overburdened plot that still leaves one mystery unresolved, readers will welcome this third showcase for a valiant heroine with a shady past.

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November 1, 2016

In 1920s Hollywood Jessie Beckett works as a script girl for Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and his wife, Mary Pickford. In her third outing (after The Impersonator and Silent Murders), Mary asks Jessie to investigate the death of Lila Walker. The woman convicted of Lila's murder, Ruby Glynn, is a friend of Mary's favorite cameraman, Rob Handler, and neither of them believe Ruby is guilty. Jessie, a former member of a vaudeville troupe, has a knack for uncovering schemes and throws herself into the investigation. Wearing a disguise, she moves into Lila's old boardinghouse and then ends up back on the vaudeville trail, trying to determine who hated Lila enough to kill her. VERDICT With a well-developed and surprising plot twist, an appealing, resourceful amateur detective, and fascinating period details, this entertaining historical will delight fans of Old Hollywood and those who like the 1920s-set mysteries of Suzanne Arruda and George Baxt.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2016
With the support of her bosses, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, amateur sleuth Jessie Beckett has no trouble pulling off an elaborate ruse to catch the real killer who's put an innocent woman on death row. Set in Jazz Age Hollywood, with cameo appearances by famous stars and stars in the making, along with the slightly shady (but delicious) David Carr from the previous two books, this series' third installment zips along with energy. While the mystery is fairly straightforwardsavvy buffs will spot the culprit early onthe entertaining characters and details of a bygone Hollywood more than make up for it. Jessie's questionable past and spunky determination to make something of herself are endearingly reminiscent of Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher (though a younger and poorer version). A little sparkle, a hint of sex, some wily Prohibition-era shenanigans, and one smart cookie in the lead make this a great read that's similar to Renee Patrick's Design for Dying (2016), the first of another Tinseltown mystery series set in Hollywood's golden age, with a likewise spunky sleuth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)