The Valentino Affair: The Jazz Age Murder Scandal That Shocked New York Society and Gripped the World
Though there’s not much Valentino to be found here, this is the gracefully told true story of a Jazz Age Chilean heiress, the American cad who married and then ignored her, and one Rodolfo Guglielmi, who would with luck and looks transform into Rudolph Valentino, one of silent film’s most adored stars. When older playboy Jack de Saulles married Blanca Errázuriz, he thought she had more money than she did, and he spent what she had, some of it while charming other women, which resulted in Guglielmi-Valentino giving testimony in their divorce. The de Saulles’ young son, Jack, however, kept the couple in touch, for better or worse (and it was worse).  By carefully sketching the contemporaneous political situation, weaving in the wayward husband’s greedy ambitions, and quoting from the lonely wife’s letters, Evans skillfully builds the enormous train wreck these three people’s lives created once their paths crossed, however briefly. Evans not only re-creates an era but does so novelistically, making the characters despicable, real, and lovely and making the book itself a page-turner. For true-crime fans and history buffs alike. --Eloise Kinney