Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #309904 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Review
'Sharper, funnier, faster-moving, smarter and more effortlessly entertaining than any other thriller you're likely to read this year. Or next year even' Daily Mirror 'This is superior stuff, resonant of Elmore Leonard's GET SHORTY, with the construct of a movie script within a movie script within a movie script ingenious the twists kept coming his ability to construct a story is a wonder to behold' Daily Telegraph 'A witty, twisty thriller that also contains a casual masterclass in how to pitch and script a story' Mark Lawson, Guardian 'This is a wonderful black comedy crackling with witty dialogue. Bochco's handling of pace and patter is masterful' Sunday Mirror

Daily Mirror
Brilliant...It's sharper, funnier, faster-moving, smarter and effortlessly more entertaining than any other thriller you're likely to read this year.

Irish Independent
An exemplary performance that leaves the reader sore from grinning from ear to ear.

Customer Reviews

Superb Black comedy
As a first novel, this is excellent, although Bochco's TV pedigree indicates we shouldn't be surprised that this is a first class read.

With a plot line that twists and turns, a wisecracking narrative and a heavy dose of black humour, you will find yourself drawn into the tale. And Bochco has drawn a series of venal, amoral self absorbed characters, whose rush to get ahead in Hollywood, provides the backdrop for all that goes on - and there's lots going on, including at least 3 major ideas for films/TV shows, murder, and sex aplenty.

Highly recommended to all fans of the crime genre, this has more than enough originality for me to want a follow up.

Simple Story
This book is a simple read and similar to reading a script the story is short but to the point with no boring bits to drag the story out in the middle which seems to be happening in most books written at the moment, the plot is good and the book flows freely.

A successful conversion
Having created hit TV shows such as Hill Street Blues and NYPD Blue, Death by Hollywood is Steven Bochco's debut novel. As the title suggests, the book is set in Tinseltown and by using agent Eddie Jelko as narrator, Bochco immediately introduces the reader into this elite yet bizarre world.

"It's a tough town and a tough business, and if you don't watch your step either one'll kill you which I guess is what this story is actually about."

This slick warning prepares the reader for a journey into the warped world of the A-list celebrity. Bochco, a two-time Edgar Award winning writer, has produced a darkly comical crime novel having also installed elements of betrayal and seduction.

Bochco has described the novel as "a tale which he could not tell on television." This I do not agree with. After writing series after series about the crime ridden streets of New York, featuring countless events of drug raids and gang warfare, Bochco could very easily have adapted Death by Hollywood onto the small screen.

Having said that, the decision is that of Bochco's, a man very much qualified to make that choice.
At a glance, Death by Hollywood could be seen as just another crime novel. A down on his luck screenwriter, beautiful rich women, a murder and a detective may seem the usual ingredients to make another bland tale from the genre. However, Bochco does not focus upon the money and sex which these stars have, but the sordidness which has spread through this corrupt industry.

The novel does not stand out as something which could reinvent the genre, but Bochco's debut is a well crafted thought-provoking insight into a world which most of us will never truly see. How much of a true reflection he has conveyed is another story. After his own success in Hollywood, the reader has no choice but to believe him. JG