The Last Embrace

Overview

Lily Kessler, a former stenographer and spy for the OSS, comes to Los Angeles to find her late fiance's sister Kitty, an actress who is missing from her Hollywood boardinghouse. The next day, Kitty's body is found in a ravine below the Hollywood sign. Unimpressed by the local police, Lily investigates on her own. As she delves into Kitty's life, she encounters fiercely competitive starlets, gangsters, an eccentric special-effects genius, exotic denizens of Hollywood's nightclubs, and a homicide detective who might distract her from her quest for justice. But the landscape in L.A. can shift kaleidoscopically, and Lily begins to see how easily a young woman can lose her balance and fall prey to the alluring city's dangers....

With vibrant characters and unerring insight into the desires and dark impulses that can flare between men and women, The Last Embrace showcases Denise Hamilton at the height of her storytelling powers as she transports readers to a fascinating, transitional time in one of America's most beguiling cities.

Editorial Reviews

Lily Kessler, a former OSS officer, fearlessly treads Hollywood's meanest streets in search of her late fiance's actress sister, Kitty Hayden, who's gone missing while seeking juicy parts and wealthy lovers, in this evocative stand-alone set in 1949 from Hamilton (Prisoner of Memory and four other Eve Diamond thrillers). Soon after moving into Kitty's grungy boarding house, Lily learns Kitty's been murdered, like the famous "Black Dahlia" not long before, and she puts all her skills--intuition, deduction, inference and logic--into unraveling the crime. Gang wars, police corruption, shady reporters and a passionate new love interest, Det. Stephen Pico, can't stop Lily. Despite some papier-mache minor characters and some celluloid motivations, this torrid, down-and-dirty expose of the postwar entertainment industry includes enough special effects to make all that glitter look--temporarily--like 24-carat gold. (July) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

Author Information

Bio of Denise Hamilton

Denise Hamilton writes the nationally best-selling Eve Diamond crime novels featuring a reporter who solves murders in contemporary multicultural Los Angeles. In her latest book, Prisoner of Memory, Hamilton plumbs her own family's Russian heritage to combine Cold War espionage and suspense. Read chapter one here. Savage Garden was a finalist for the Southern California Booksellers Award for "Best Mystery of 2005." Her books have been finalists for this award for two years running. Hamilton's books have been shortlisted for the Edgar, Macavity, Anthony and Willa Cather awards. Her debut The Jasmine Trade was also a finalist for the prestigious Creasey Dagger Award given by the UK Crime Writers Assn. Hamilton's books have been BookSense 76 picks and Mystery Guild alternate selections. They are also published in France, Japan and England.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Scribner

Filesize

381.51 KB

Number of Pages

400

eBook ISBN

1439105510