The Humphrey Bogart Murder Case - Hardcover

Baxt, George

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312118287 ISBN 13: 9780312118280

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1995

Synopsis

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 Hellman into the chase, and for a while it seems that everyone, from the washed-up silent film actress Karen Barrett to the greatest screen vamp of the twenties, Theda Bara, to studio mogul Samuel 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 "daughter" 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 "such stuff as dreams are made on."

About this title

Reviews

Baxt has featured such celebrities as Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, and Marlene Dietrich in his series of Hollywood murder novels, so it's only appropriate that he finally got around to everybody's favorite tough guy, Humphrey Bogart. When his mother-in-law's house is ransacked and his housekeeper is murdered, Bogart gets involved in a dangerous search for a missing cornucopia filled with priceless gems; any resemblance to the plot of The Maltese Falcon is purely intentional. Along the way, we meet such Bogart friends and coworkers as Dashiell Hammett, Sidney Greenstreet, and Mary Astor. Every celebrity turns out to be just what you'd expect: Bogart is a stand-up, stalwart good guy; Sam Goldwyn mangles his English; and Theda Bara, long past her movie career, is downright weird. Baxt fills his novel with nonstop anachronisms: no one collected comic books or baseball cards in 1940; food rationing didn't begin until after the U.S. entered World War II; T-shirts with slogans are a more recent plague. Still, despite the gaffes, the tale offers light entertainment for fans of movies or mysteries. George Needham

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Pr
• Publication date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312118287
• ISBN 13: 9780312118280
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200