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Summary
Author Notes
Stuart Woods was born in Manchester, Georgia on January 9, 1938. He received a B. A. in sociology from the University of Georgia in 1959. He worked in the advertising business and eventually wrote two non-fiction books entitled Blue Water, Green Skipper and A Romantic's Guide to the Country Inns of Britain and Ireland. His first novel, Chiefs, was published in 1981. It won an Edgar Award and was made into a TV miniseries starring Charlton Heston. His other works include the Stone Barrington series, the Holly Barker series, the Will Lee series, the Ed Eagle series, the Rick Barron series and the Teddy Fay series. He won France's Prix de Literature Policiere for Imperfect Strangers. His autobiography, An Extravagant Life, was published in June 2022. Stuart Woods died on July 22, 2022, at his home in Lichfield, Connecticut. He was 84.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In this tepid sequel to 2004's The Prince of Beverly Hills, bestseller Woods revisits the late 1940s but fails to realistically evoke the era of the HUAC hearings, Hollywood blacklists and the waning days of big studios and the star system. Demoted L.A. detective Rick Barron recently quit the force to head security for Centurion Studios and has now morphed into the studio's head of production. Using this new power at the studio, Rick is in charge of selecting leading actors and scouting settings for a gritty western written by famous playwright Sidney Brooks. Centurion is a worthy stand-in for the typical studio of the era, but the Hollywood blacklist story and the untimely disappearance of one of the stars is familiar territory, and Woods doesn't break any new ground. Longtime fans of Woods's Stone Barrington series are sure to enjoy certain aspects of the story, but newcomers are likely to be disappointed. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
1947. Eight years after tussling with starlets, mobsters and studio heads in The Prince of Beverly Hills (2004), former Beverly Hills cop Rick Barron is back, now on the other side of the desk. Everything happens fast at Centurion Studios, where Rick Barron is head of production. Hours after wrapping his first film as director, he decides to put off the war movie he's supposed to be making next in favor of Bitter Creek, a tough Western penned by playwright-turned-screenwriter Sidney Brooks that he is first shown at the wrap party. The next day, he buys the screenplay, starts pre-production, sends a location scout to Wyoming to look at cattle ranches and hires newcomer Vance Calder to star. It isn't long, though, before problems crop up. Somebody mails Rick photostats of Communist Party membership cards in the names of Sidney Brooks and Louise Brecht, who just happens, under the name Glenna Gleason, to be Rick's wife and leading lady. The suicide of Alan James, who's testified as an unfriendly witness before the House Un-American Activities Committee, makes James's old friend Brooks apprehensive about his own subpoena. And with good cause, since the dire consequences of his appearance before the HUAC come as rapidly as Rick's career moves. In one of those unrelated plot lines Woods's fans evidently love, the runaway romance between Vance Calder and Susie Stafford, his Bitter Creek costar, hits a snag when Susie, en route from moving her things from her ex-lover Henrietta ("Hank") Harmon's apartment to the spacious house Vance just bought from Brooks, vanishes with every indication of foul play. You'll be relieved to know that by the end of the year, Bitter Creek opens to strong notices and considerable Oscar buzz. Precious little mystery or suspense, but the book's momentum and the blacklist plot line will keep the pages turning. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Both a sequel to The Prince of Beverly Hills (2004) and a prequel (of sorts) to L.A. Dead (2000) and L.A. Times (1993), this novel, set in Hollywood in the late 1940s, feels like a movie made in that era, with snappy dialogue, lively characters, and a story that moves along at a brisk clip. Rick Barron, the former Beverly Hills police officer introduced in Prince of Beverly Hills, is now head of production of Centurion Pictures. He has just commissioned a script from his good friend, playwright Sid Brook, when Brook is subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. There's trouble for Rick, too: he is sent, anonymously, a copy of a Communist Party registration card that seems to prove that his wife is a party member. Although this highly entertaining tale does feature a couple of important mystery elements, the thematic focus is less on crime than on Hollywood's struggle to maintain artistic independence during the Communist witch hunts. Woods, author of the Stone Barrington mystery series, injects into the story some important points about the uneasy relationship between art and politics, not to mention the havoc wreaked upon personal lives by the HUAC investigations. But don't be frightened off by too much politics: this is a slick, fast-paced story about moviemaking, and it's a lot of fun. Recommend it particularly to fans of Greg Matthews' 1940s-era Hollywood mysteries and Stuart Kaminsky's Toby Peters series.--Pitt, David Copyright 2007 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Bad news: movie mogul Rick Barron learns that a friend has been subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. And his wife may be next. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.