Review: Story or reference?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 30, 2012
This was supplied free by the author to read and review.Overall I liked this book hence the 4* score. It is obviously well researched and the author is very knowledgeable about the early film industry. Set in the USA during the prohibition years it is not a cops and robbers tale as almost all the characters are on the wrong side of the law including gangsters, bootleggers and confidence tricksters. There is a good strong story line with it starting with the torture and murder of Danny a close friend of Hud the central character in the book who then seeks revenge and in the meantime wants to produce a film.All of the characters seem real and the author by using the names of real people from the time such as "Al Capone" manages to give a feel for the 1920s, unfortunately when it came to descriptive passages I found that the technique used slowed the pace of action and it seemed almost that sections of encyclopaedias had been cut and pasted in.  Perhaps a glossary would have been a good idea as an example the Chinese gambling games "Fan tan" and "Sci bo" are described which slows down the action. Even more descriptive passages are used to explain the development of the "Talkies" and although very interesting perhaps these would be more suited to a separate story line rather than intertwined with the main action.