George Baxt: The Talking Pictures Murder Case (USA 1990)

From the Publisher:
It is 1929, and Hollywood is in chaos. Tinseltown is far removed from the stock market cash, however; the word on everyone's lips is "talkers." The invention of movies with sound means the dawn of an exciting new era in the film industry. But not everyone stands to gain from the demise of silent movies, and some will do anything for revenge.

Alexander Roland, czar of Diamond Films ("If it sparkles, it's a Diamond!"), plans to empty his studios of all the players whose voices don't register well in a soundstage. And mega-producer Samuel Goldwyn intends to do the same, in between uttering his famous Goldwynisms ("Mock my words!"). The tyranical Marie Darling, whose precious offspring -- darling daughter Annamary, sullen but swashbuckling son-in-law Willis Loring, and doping and drinking son Jack -- were once sfars of the silent screen, is determined fo make her opinions register.

Amidst the welling prima donnas, aging playboys, and breathless young hopefuls imported from Broadway, lurks a murderer. Of course, everyone in the show-biz community is capable of murder, but only in Hollywood are young aspiring actresses strangled with their own silk stockings.

Police inspector Herbert Villon is brought in to investigate, but ace gossip reporter Hazel Dickson may beat him to it, and then Bertha Graze -- confidante to 'everyone, it seems -- and her crystal ball may have a thing or two to tell him.

George Baxt: The Talking Pictures Murder Case. A Novel. St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312050437 (November, 1990), 197 p., $15.95.