Synopsis
This time, celebrity ghostwriter Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag is caught in the middle of the biggest, ugliest divorce war in Hollywood history. The tabloids are calling it the House of Wax. The public can't get enough of it. In one corner is Matthew Wax, reclusive millionaire director of five out of the top ten blockbusters in movie history. In the other is his breathtaking leading lady, Pennyroyal Brim--America's sweetheart. Pretty Penny wants their son, George ("Little Georgie"). She also wants Bedford Falls, her husband's failing movie studio; then again, so does one of the Japanese electronics giants. Penny has Abel Zorch, Hollywood's greatest attorney, on her team. And she has hired Cassandra Dee, publishing's sleaziest ghost, to help her with her tell-all memoir about life with Matthew. Matthew has no choice but to fire back with a memoir of his own. Hoagy is the weapon of choice.
The assignment takes our reluctant hero and his faithful, neurotic basset hound, Lulu, back out to Tinseltown, where the Santa Ana winds are blowing and some of the deadliest sharks in Hollywood are circling, all of them lusting for blood and money. It isn't long before Hoagy finds one of those sharks shot to death--and himself trying desperately to uncover the awful truth in a place where there is no such thing as the truth, where everything is possible and where nothing, but nothing, is real.
The Boy Who Never Grew Up is a delightfully, deliciously nasty inside look at the madness that is modern-day Hollywood from one of the mystery world's brightest young stars.
Reviews
Edgar-winning Handler's sixth Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag mystery will surely captivate admirers of the celebrity ghostwriter/sleuth, but it is bound to annoy some readers. One has to love a smart aleck to join the fan club here, because Hoagy never gives a straight response when a wisecrack will do--which seems to be most of the time. Leaving New York City, he heads west to ghostwrite a memoir for a Hollywood wunderkind, director Matthew Wax, and finds himself smack in the middle of a messy, money-grubbing, tabloid-banner divorce war between his brilliantly naif subject and his greedy, street-smart wife, the actress Pennyroyal Brim. At stake is Wax's studio, Bedford Falls (yes, named after the town in It's a Wonderful Life ), which Pennyroyal intends to claim and then sell to Panorama City for a cool $150 million. Rounding out the well-drawn cast in a plot that proceeds from mean to nasty to murderous are Abel Zorch, Pennyroyal's unscrupulous attorney; Johnny Forget, former child star and Wax protege; Cassandra Dee, ghostwriter for Pennyroyal Brim; and Norbert Schlom, president of Panorama City. On the way to a brisk finale, Handler sharply skewers and spoofs La-La Land until Hoagy can at last quip his way back home again. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Veteran ghostwriter Hoagy Hoag (The Woman Who Fell from Grace, etc.), bereft of his wife Merilee, is back in Hollywood to help Boy Wonder director Matthew Wax tell the story of his life--or his side of the story, since his wife Pennyroyal Brim, America's Sweetheart, has just filed for a messy divorce. The well-chronicled split (Penny's hired her own ghost, and even casual observers get pumped for every detail) turns into a genuine bloodbath when Penny's feral lawyer and his current toy boy are found shot. There'll be more murder, endless dirt dished about (and by) a zillion suspects--all well-developed and sharply focused--and more than enough bright dialogue to perk up the obligatory theme parties, alcoholic breakfasts, and romantic ambushes (Hoagy must be the most irresistible ghost in Culver City) before the logical, though intolerably overextended, finale. An ebullient expos‚ of what you only wish were Steven Spielberg's private life. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Anyone caught up in occasional Hollywood hype should love this series addition. At the behest of former boy-wonder movie director Matthew Wax--caught in a nasty and much-publicized settlement battle with his estranged wife--celebrity ghostwriter Hoag travels to Hollywood to write Wax's side of the story. As Hoag's research uncovers powermongering and sleaze, theft, arson, and murder threaten to engulf Wax's studio. The debonair, clever, and arrogant Hoag (accompanied by basset hound Lulu) provides wit and sparkle in a succulent, intricate web of intrigue. Quick, escapist reading.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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