Far from Heaven: A Keith Moody Mystery

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

The title of this clunky first novel in a proposed series refers to WWII-era Hollywood, a nasty place where the studios are run by moguls who own their employees body and soul. Keith Moody, writer of B-westerns at Empire Studios, receives an apparent windfall when his long-lost cousin, fighter pilot Russell Keys, becomes a war hero. Studio head Marvin Margolis promises Moody the screenwriting gig if he can get Keys to sell his story to Empire. Moody is no sooner successful than Keys and his plane disappear over the Rocky Mountains. Add to that an attempt to blackmail the studio over Keys's supposedly squeaky clean reputation and Moody begins to smell a rat. Nursing a budding relationship with Myra, sister to the film's star, Moody also plays detective when the blackmailer is killed. Next, a private detective Moody hires bites the dust and bodies start flying. The convoluted plot is overcrowded with flat characters portrayed broadly and with only boilerplate humor. Matthews fails to breathe life into his 1940s Hollywood setting, racks up an unbelievable body count and, in the end, produces a story that resembles one of Moody's B-movie scripts. (Aug.)

VOYA - John Charles

Keith Moody has sold his professional soul to Hollywood. Hoping to become a serious writer, Keith has somehow ended up at Empire productions churning out scripts for westerns. A chance to break out of his professional rut arrives when the head of the studio, Marvin Margolis, calls upon him for a favor. All Keith has to do is convince his war hero cousin Russell Keys, with whom he has not had contact for years, to allow Empire Productions rights to his life story. If Keith is successful he will be allowed to write the screenplay for the movie. Keith manages to get Russell to sign a contract with Empire. Unfortunately, soon afterward Russell vanishes and a stranger begins blackmailing the studio, hinting at hidden perversions in Russell's past. Keith quickly finds himself involved in a deadly scandal that could cost him not only his career but his life. From Keith's foul-mouthed former studio boss to his sexy, wisecracking girlfriend, with whom Keith falls into bed before falling in love, each character in this stylish mystery seems to have come straight out of the cast of a B noir movie. The setting is evocative of 1940s Hollywood, right down to the intense hatred Americans had for the Japanese. A sly sense of humor infuses the plot, resulting in some funny scenes, especially the interactions between Keith and Margolis. Recommended for sophisticated mystery readers who have an affinity for the time period and setting. VOYA Codes: 3Q 2P S (Readable without serious defects, For the YA with a special interest in the subject, Senior High-defined as grades 10 to 12).

Library Journal

In 1942 Hollywood, Empire Productions struggles to produce a patriotic, money-making blockbuster based on the heroic exploits of an American pilot. Scriptwriter/protagonist Keith Moody, chosen for the project because the pilot is his cousin, still must fabricate most of the screenplay; however, he soon finds himself investigating blackmail, murder, missing cash, possible conspiracy, and his cousin's disappearance. Matthews has the atmosphere down pat, including the studio bickering, wannabe actresses, and B-movie dialog. A first mystery and a safe bet for larger collections.

Kirkus Reviews

Keith Moody's lucky year just might be 1941. He's plucked from the ranks of B-western screenwriters at Empire Studios and promised a prestige assignment on a new war film—if only he can persuade Russell Keys, the flying ace who just happens to be his cousin, to sign the rights to his life's story over to Empire. Fat chance, thinks Moody, who's never gotten along with Russell. But Russell signs without a murmur, and Moody starts finding out just how bad 1941 can be. Item: Russell's Thunderbolt crashes in a Kansas field, with no sign of the pilot, throwing the fate of China Skies into doubt. Item: unsavory Tony White demands a $50,000 blackmail for keeping secret about the ace's relationship with a murdered dwarf prostitute in China—news that could send China Skies into the deep freeze. Items: After a routine payoff, Tony gets himself killed just outside Moody's view; then the detective Moody's put on the case gets killed; then Tony's killer gets killed, along with his wife; then three more people get killed, two of them as Moody watches. Through it all, seedy Empire head Marvin Margolis plots around each new wrinkle with devious obtuseness to keep the production afloat, even when his leads join the endangered list.

This first mystery from Matthews (The Wisdom of Stones, 1994, etc.) has a bouncy way with studio types, from self- promoting stars to nubile researchers, that keeps the parade moving along smartly till the halfway point, when cast members start to arm themselves and blast away at each other as indiscriminately as postal employees.