Loren D. Estleman

Film detective Valentino is a bit at loose ends as a bathroom is being installed in his restored movie theatre/home, so he is pleased when an old college friend contacts him about a new project: restoring a drive-in movie theatre, something that the builder really wants to do. He enlists Valentino’s help, and the latter brings in his old friend Leo Kalishnikov, eccentric but brilliant theatre designer, but Leo has other things on his mind - he is being blackmailed by somebody who knows something about his past. Val agrees to help his old friend, but is also contacted by a stranger, who claims to have the first two reels of the legendary Theda Bara’s Cleopatra, long missing from the world. How will Valentino find time to solve all these puzzles, especially after murder intrudes?.... Loren D. Estleman is best known for his Amos Walker series, but the Valentino books, of which this is the seventh, are a great deal of fun to read. Mr. Estleman’s Los Angeles setting reveals his familiarity with that town and all its quirks as well, and his love of film history is evident throughout, up to and including bibliographies and filmographies at the end of each book. These are not terribly serious works, but they are hugely entertaining - and the reader learns something, to boot! Start with the first book, “Framed,” and you won’t be sorry; recommended!… (more)