Alive! (Valentino, Bk 3)
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
Author:
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
Book Type: Hardcover
This is the third book in Estleman's Valentino mysteries. Valentino is a UCLA film archivist or Film Detective who bought an old movie palace in Hollywood called the Oracle and is in the process of restoring it. In the first book, FRAMES, he discovers a complete print of the movie "Greed" which was assumed lost forever. I really enjoyed FRAMES but was slightly disappointed with the second book in the series, ALONE, about some lost footage of Greta Garbo. In this third outing, Valentino's friend, Craig Hunter, is murdered by what appears to be a gang-related hit. But why? After searching through Hunter's belongings, Valentino determines that Hunter may have found the lost footage of Bela Lugosi's screen test for Frankenstein. Lugosi was actually slated to star in the movie playing the monster before Karloff got the role. But the screen test was quite bad and Lugosi backed out because he didn't have a speaking role. So does the footage exist and if so, what is it worth? Valentino follows the clues which lead to some underworld figures who are also after the footage. And a noted collector named J. Arthur Greenwood is highly interested in adding the missing screen test to his large collection of horror memorabilia. In fact, he had already purchased the only know poster that was printed proclaiming Lugosi in the role for over $100,000. Along the way, Valentino's assistant and a group of steampunkers get involved which make for a quite interesting story.
I definitely enjoyed this one more that ALONE. Estleman includes lots of information in the story about old Hollywood and especially the horror films made by Universal during the 30s and 40s. He discusses the careers of both Lugosi and Karloff and how Lugosi's career declined after playing Dracula while Karloff's rose steadily after his role in Frankenstein. The last movie that Lugosi appeared in before his death was called The Black Sleep from 1956 which was a throwback to the old Universal horror movies. After reading about this in the book, I actually found the movie streaming on Tubi and found it to be quite fun to watch. The Greenwood character in the book was fashioned after the real Forrest J. Ackerman who was also the publisher of Famous Monsters of Filmland, a magazine devoted to monster movies. I remember reading this back in the 60s when I was a teen and collected many of the issues which were always fascinating to me.
The screen test made by Bela Lugosi is also real and there was a poster made based on him being cast as the monster which sold for big bucks. I have the next two books in this series and hope to get to them sometime soon.
I definitely enjoyed this one more that ALONE. Estleman includes lots of information in the story about old Hollywood and especially the horror films made by Universal during the 30s and 40s. He discusses the careers of both Lugosi and Karloff and how Lugosi's career declined after playing Dracula while Karloff's rose steadily after his role in Frankenstein. The last movie that Lugosi appeared in before his death was called The Black Sleep from 1956 which was a throwback to the old Universal horror movies. After reading about this in the book, I actually found the movie streaming on Tubi and found it to be quite fun to watch. The Greenwood character in the book was fashioned after the real Forrest J. Ackerman who was also the publisher of Famous Monsters of Filmland, a magazine devoted to monster movies. I remember reading this back in the 60s when I was a teen and collected many of the issues which were always fascinating to me.
The screen test made by Bela Lugosi is also real and there was a poster made based on him being cast as the monster which sold for big bucks. I have the next two books in this series and hope to get to them sometime soon.
