Bit Player: A Jeri Howard Mystery (Jeri Howard Mysteries) - Softcover

Dawson, Janet

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1564744949 ISBN 13: 9781564744944

Publisher: Perseverance Press, 2011

Synopsis

Old movies, old memories, old crimes - and present-day murder. Oakland PI Jeri Howard finds all of these when a chance encounter in a movie memorabilia shop sets her on an investigation into her grandmother's past life in Hollywood. Before marrying Jeri's grandfather during World War II, Jerusha Layne worked as a bit player, an actress who spoke a few lines in movie backgrounds.

Her dreams of stardom never came true. But did she play another role, that of suspect in the unsolved 1942 murder of an actor? And Jeri must also solve a current mystery: Are old movie posters so valuable that someone would kill for them?

About this title

About the Author:

Janet Dawson is the author of ten novels about PI Jeri Howard. Kindred Crimes won the St. Martin's Press/PWA best first PI novel contest, also earning Shamus, Macavity, and Anthony nominations. Dawson has been an enlisted journalist in the Navy, and now works for the University of California. Dawson says, "In a way, I grew up at the movies. My mother's family owned movie theaters from the 1920s till the 1970s.” Dawson spent time as a child helping her aunt sell popcorn and watching her uncle lift huge film reels onto the projectors, to spin out dreams on the silver screen.

From Publishers Weekly:

In Dawson's delightful 10th Jeri Howard mystery (after 2000's A Killing at the Track), the elderly proprietor of a movie memorabilia shop in Alameda, Calif., overhears PI Jeri mention her actress grandmother, Jerusha Layne, who went to Hollywood in 1937 and played extras in films like the MGM costume drama Marie Antoinette. The man informs Jeri that Jerusha dated and later had an unfriendly parting from British actor Ralph Tarrant—and may have had more than a bit role in Tarrant's unsolved 1942 murder. A skeptical Jeri, knowing Jerusha met her grandfather in 1941 and married him in '42, digs into her grandmother's past, starting with the roommates with whom Jerusha shared a bungalow. Meanwhile, Jeri has to wonder if someone is willing to commit murder in the present-day over two golden era movie posters. In flashbacks, Dawson does a fine job bringing WWII-era Los Angeles to life. (Apr.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Perseverance Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1564744949
• ISBN 13: 9781564744944
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 275