A curious mystery by Ray Bradbury. A good read.
The image of drowned circus cages in the trash-filled canals of Venice, California, both haunts and illuminates famed fantasy and science fiction author Ray Bradbury's rare venture into the mystery field. Like filmmaker Federico Fellini, Bradbury is fascinated by the seedy splendor of cheap carnivals and circuses--"a long time before, in the early Twenties, these cages had probably rolled by like bright summer storms with animals prowling them, lions opening their mouths to exhale hot meat breaths. Teams of white horses had dragged their pomp through Venice and across the fields."
But now it's the early 1950s, and foggy, shabby Venice is the last stop on the circus train for scores of old silent-movie stars and young writers trying to keep their art and their bodies alive. As Bradbury's autobiographical hero, a young writer, pounds out his short stories, someone is killing off the older denizens of the tacky city. The writer joins forces with a quirky detective called Elmo Crumley and a faded screen star to investigates the deaths. Their search begins and ends in one of those iconic, waterlogged cages.
Blending hard-boiled detective fiction with beautiful descriptions of this strange Californian town, Death Is a Lonely Business is well worth investigating. --Dick Adler
But now it's the early 1950s, and foggy, shabby Venice is the last stop on the circus train for scores of old silent-movie stars and young writers trying to keep their art and their bodies alive. As Bradbury's autobiographical hero, a young writer, pounds out his short stories, someone is killing off the older denizens of the tacky city. The writer joins forces with a quirky detective called Elmo Crumley and a faded screen star to investigates the deaths. Their search begins and ends in one of those iconic, waterlogged cages.
Blending hard-boiled detective fiction with beautiful descriptions of this strange Californian town, Death Is a Lonely Business is well worth investigating. --Dick Adler
This novel is quite unlike most of Bradbury's usual fare. In it, he delves into the realm of the noir mystery novel. It is set in 1949 and takes place in Venice, California where the narrator is a young writer (Bradbury himself) who gets involved in a series of possible murders of some of the less fortunate residents of the decaying city of Venice. The story starts out with the narrator riding an old street car when a mysterious person behind him whispers "Death is a lonely business." Before the person can be identified he runs off into the rainy streets. Then the narrator discovers a body in an abandoned circus wagon left in an old canal of Venice. Other deaths and near deaths occur throughout the novel as the narrator tries to find the killer. He is aided by Elmo Crumley, a street-smart detective, and Constance Rattigan, a reclusive actress of yesteryear.
Bradbury did actually live in Venice from 1942 to 1950 and wrote some of his early stories there which were published by the pulp magazines of the time. This novel gives some of the mindset of where Bradbury got his ideas. An interesting different perspective from Bradbury.
Bradbury did actually live in Venice from 1942 to 1950 and wrote some of his early stories there which were published by the pulp magazines of the time. This novel gives some of the mindset of where Bradbury got his ideas. An interesting different perspective from Bradbury.
