Thursday, October 29, 2009

Book Review: Frames by Loren Estleman

Title Frames: A Valentino Mystery (Thorndike Press Large Print Mystery Series)
Author Loren D. Estleman
Rating ****
Tags mystery, series, valentino, film preservation, movie history, erich von stroheim 


First in a contemporary mystery series with film archivist Valentino, no relation to the silent star actor or the designer. He is looking for a house, and for grins and giggles looks at one of the movie palaces built in the twenties that is for sale. He finds canisters of film marked "Greed", Erich von Stroheim's lost silent masterpiece. So he makes an offer on the theater and then finds a skeleton in the basement, which makes it a crime scene and endangers the film. So Valentino must solve the mystery to save the film.

Estleman is an experienced writer with over 60 published novels. I have not read him before, but will in the future. Frames is a pleasant well-constructed novel. The main characters are nicely drawn, and the plot works, and he brings in fun movie history - even has a bibliography of non-fiction and fictional works at the end of the book. The next in the series, Alone, will be published in early December 2009.

Publication Thorndike Press (2008), Edition: Lrg, Hardcover, 365 pages
Publication date 2008
ISBN 1410408604 / 9781410408600

Posted via web from reannon's posterous

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