Detective Fiction, Historical Figures - Fiction, Crimes - Fiction, Arts & Entertainment - Fiction, Character Types - Fiction, Other Mystery Categories, Historical Fiction
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Overview
The year is 1936, and Mae West has all of Hollywood wrapped around her little finger: a place many a man would kill to be. The legendary screen siren has, however, one critic - one with deadly fangs in place of a poison pen - who is knocking off Mae West impersonators along his way to the real thing. But if there's one thing Mae West knows, it's that no no-account vampire is going to upstage Tinseltown's most celebrated vamp. Brought back larger than life as only George Baxt can do it, Mae herself takes charge of the investigation in an adventure brimming with her doubles and her double entendres. This time she's hoping he won't have a gun in his pocket, and that he won't be glad to see her. Armed with glamour, gossip, and curves of every kind, Mae leaps headlong into a web of blackmail and corruption without so much as a trace of fear. Says Mae: "You don't know danger until you've faced the New York critics on an opening night." And when a Hallowe'en party at one of Hollywood's spookiest, seamiest clubs brings hunter and hunted together, it's no longer clear who is after whom. What is clear, however, is that once Mae West gets in on the act, no sucker is safe.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
The latest Hollywood-in-its-heyday caper from Baxt ( The Noel Coward Murder Case et al.) is long on camp but short on humor. In 1936, with the extravagantly endowed and spoken star of the title at the height of her power at Paramount, four Mae West impersonators (one a woman) are murdered. LAPD detectives Villon and Mallory, two dim bulbs, call on megawatt Mae to warn her. Accompanied by Villon and Mallory as bodyguards/musclemen, bossy and fearless Mae attends a Halloween ball at a Hollywood drag palace. After the club owner and a script girl are murdered at the ball, the star zeroes in on the killer, aided by the dull coppers. Preposterous in its resolution, laced with such anachronisms as ``grope therapy'' and a Superman costume three years before the man of steel was introduced, this froth is flat--and no tribute to the multi-dimensioned West. (Dec.)Emily Melton
The prolific Baxt offers up another in his series of mysteries featuring famous personalities of the past. This time flamboyant sex siren Mae West--mistress of the earthy double entendre--is the heroine. Someone's been killing off the West lookalikes who are cropping up all over Hollywood in the wake of the original's enormous popularity. Even though Mae is surrounded by comely, muscular bodyguards who'd sacrifice their lives to protect her, Detective Herb Villon and his partner, Jim Mallory, fear she'll be the killer's next victim. In a madcap race to find the murderer, Villon, Mallory, and Mae encounter plenty of odd characters, including gangsters, witches, and warlocks. Baxt has done his usual outstanding job of reincarnating his celebrity characters. West's golden-hearted bawdiness and the glitz of 1930s Hollywood come through loud and clear. A witty and entertaining satire posing as a mystery.Book Details
Published
November 1, 1993
Publisher
St Martins Pr
Pages
208
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780312098643