Lights! Camera! Action! Display
Movie awards season starts to ramp up as we begin the new year, and lots of people like to spend time in January catching up on watching the nominated films. But what about all the BOOKS about movies??? There are lots of titles set in Hollywood, loads of books featuring movie stars, and tons of stories set on sets! Check out some of these star-studded titles in our "Lights! Camera! Action" display:
If you're looking for a Hollywood thriller, look no further than "Pretty as a Picture" by Elizabeth Little. "Marissa Dahl, a shy but successful film editor, travels to a small island off the coast of Delaware to work with the legendary - and legendarily demanding - director Tony Rees on a feature film with a familiar logline. Some girl dies. It's not much to go on, but the specifics don't concern Marissa. Then she meets the intrepid and incorrigible teenage girls who are determined to solve the real-life murder that is the movie's central subject, and before long, Marissa is drawn into the investigation herself. The only problem is, the killer may still be on the loose. And he might not be finished."
Amanda Quick might be best known for her romance novels, but she also writes in other genres as well, including historical fiction. In "Close Up", a cutthroat world of allure and deception must be traversed in order to uncover the killer who will stop at nothing to add their victims to their gallery of murders. "Welcome to Burning Cove, California, where 1930s Hollywood glamour conceals a ruthless killer.... Vivian Brazier never thought life as an art photographer would include shooting headshots for aspiring male actors or nightly wake-up calls to snap photos of grisly crime scenes. Although she is set on making a career of transforming her photography into a new art form, she knows her current work is what's paying the bills. After shooting crime scene photos of a famous actress-the latest victim of the murderer the press has dubbed the "Dagger Killer"-Vivian notices eerie similarities to the crime scenes of previous Dagger Killer victims, details that only another photographer would have noticed. . . . The kind of details that lead Vivian to become a target herself. Nick Sundridge has always been able to "see" things that others can't, forcing him to cope with disturbing dreams and visions. His talent-or as he puts it, his curse-along with his dark past makes him a recluse but a brilliant investigator. As the only one with the ability to help, Nick is sent to protect Vivian. Together, they discover the Dagger Killer has ties to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood royalty and high society." In "The Girl Who Knew Too Much," when Hollywood moguls and stars want privacy, they head to an idyllic small town on the coast, where the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel caters to their every need. It's where reporter Irene Glasson finds herself staring down at a beautiful actress at the bottom of a pool. The dead woman had a red-hot secret about up-and-coming leading man Nick Tremayne, a scoop that Irene couldn't resist-especially since she's just a rookie at a third-rate gossip rag. But now Irene's investigation into the drowning threatens to tear down the wall of illusion that is so deftly built around the famous actor, and there are powerful men willing to do anything to protect their investment. Seeking the truth, Irene finds herself drawn to a master of deception. Oliver Ward was once a world-famous magician-until he was mysteriously injured during his last performance. Now the owner of the Burning Cove Hotel, he can't let scandal threaten his livelihood, even if it means trusting Irene, a woman who seems to have appeared in Los Angeles out of nowhere four months ago. With Oliver's help, Irene soon learns that the glamorous paradise of Burning Cove hides dark and dangerous secrets. And that the past-always just out of sight-could drag them both under."
If you're looking for a great story within a story, check out "Great Circle" by Maggie Shipstead. "After being rescued as infants from a sinking ocean liner in 1914, Marian and Jamie Graves are raised by their dissolute uncle in Missoula, Montana. There --after encountering a pair of pilots passing through town in a beat up Cessna--Marian commences her lifelong love affair with flight. At fifteen, she drops out of school and finds an unexpected and dangerous patron in a wealthy rancher who provides a plane and subsidizes her lessons, an arrangement that will haunt her for the rest of her life, even as it allows her to fulfill her destiny: circumnavigating the globe and piloting her plane over the Arctic Circle. A century later, Hadley Baxter is cast to play Marian in a film that centers on Marian's disappearance over the South Pacific. Vibrant, canny, disgusted with the claustrophobia of Hollywood, Hadley is eager to re-define herself after a romantic film franchise has imprisoned her in the grip of cult celebrity. Her immersion into the character of Marian unfolds, thrillingly, alongside Marian's own story, as the two womens' fates--and their hunger for self-determination in vastly different geographies and times-- collide."
You’ll find these titles and lots more in our “Lights! Camera! Action!” display. For additional title suggestions, see the lists below:
