What immediately struck me with this book is how completely Hambly catches the giddy, hedonistic whirl of parties, assignations and manoeuvring going on. There are actors desperate for better parts… producers and directors desperate to make their current film stand out from the increasing competition… those desperate to keep their film star reputations intact… And in the middle of all this is war widow Emma Blackstone, companion and assistant to her beautiful sister-in-law, Kitty Flint, who parties as hard as the best of them – regularly turning up at the set having not been home the previous night and relying on Emma to get her ready for the day’s filming. I got a ringside seat at the gossip, the constant affairs and some of the problems with the filming – the hilarious rewrites that Emma is asked to make are a running joke throughout the book. I found the world beguiling and wonderfully glamorous – but beneath the glamour lies a darker tone. Having to sleep with the director and/or producer on whichever film she’s on is part of the job, as far as Kitty is concerned – even as a major star. Filming is intensive with actors taking all sorts of stimulants to keep going – the most common being bootleg liquor, but there are also drug dealers on set. And action scenes are often horribly dangerous, with horses and extras regularly being injured and sometimes killed, with virtually no consequences, as the film industry at this time isn’t held to account. So when there is a murder during the filming of a major explosion – the studio is determined to pin the crime on the first person who discovers the body. However, Kitty and Emma aren’t so sure. To be honest – the crime and whodunit wasn’t a major consideration for me, as I was dazzled by the vividness of the world Hambly depicts. It rings true, too. Having read David Niven’s wonderful autobiography, The Moon’s a Balloon, I got a similar sense of a hectic lifestyle where people were determined to have a good time, no matter what. That said, the murder mystery does steadily become more important, particularly after Kitty and Emma are targeted. I found the denouement to be poignant and all too believable. Once more, Hambly delivers a gripping historical drama featuring a likeable protagonist. Highly recommended for fans of 1920s murder mysteries. While I obtained an arc of One Extra Corpse from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own. 9/10

Many thanks to NetGalley and Severn House for this opportunity to review “One Extra Corpse.” All opinions and comments are my own. If you’d like a crash course in silent screen movie-making and a whole lot of Hollywood name-dropping, then this is the book for you. You get that and a lot more in “One Extra Corpse,” in which our heroines Emma Blackstone and her sister-in-law, Kitty Flint AKA famed movie star Camille de la Rose are once again up to the task of solving a murder, this time a director. What you won’t get is a quick trip from Point A (the murder) to Point B (solving the murder). And lots of Latin quotations, just as in the first book in the series. Be prepared for that, too. So, who had it in for Ernst Zapolya enough to plug him while he was busy directing one of his enormous action scenes? Complete with live explosions and live bullets, no less. The Powers That Be have picked out somebody already -- a no-talent starlet -- but Emma and Kitty won’t allow that to happen. So, we’re off, to visit every town in Southern California, I swear, in search of a killer. There are a lot of great character sketches to be had within these pages. It was an amazing time, these early days of Hollywood, and readers will get to “meet” a whole bunch of movie people. It’s also not a very pretty picture, be prepared for that, too. As one of the characters says about another, “She’s been in more laps in this town than a napkin.” You get the idea, I’m sure. Emma does most of the investigating, going through the sets and visiting places; you won’t have to use much of your imagination, because the author describes it all for you. I could have done with less of this. From the beginning, Zapolya had something he wanted to tell Kitty/Camille. You’ll eventually find out what that was, which fits in with what became an issue for the movie industry in the decades following our story. And that murder? Well, there’s questions, and answers, and ruminations, a whole lot that’s rather sad. Life goes on, for some, and it’s time for my close-up, Mr. DeMille. “One Extra Corpse” is entertaining, the murder mystery somewhat secondary to the descriptions of early movie-making. It did take a while to get to the reason for it all. Having said that, I do enjoy seeing what Emma and Kitty get up to. There’s always another story to follow in Tinseltown, I’m sure.