Still Shot

by Jerry Kennealy

Book Overview

Entertainment critic and film noir author Carroll Quint gets a panicky call from his mother, former movie starlet Karen Kass. Vicky Vandamn, a roommate of Karen's some thirty years ago when they... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1612328636
• ISBN13: 9781612328638
• Release Date: February 2013
• Publisher: Speaking Volumes, LLC
• Length: 302 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Still Shot

Can a movie and theater critic succeed in solving mysteries? Well, if it is Carroll Quint, the glib movie-dialog-quoting employee of the San Francisco Examiner, he can. After all, with the training of Bogie and the rest of filmdom's private eyes, he has all the background he needs to follow his nose, after his mother, a former starlet, calls him to find the murderer of an old friend. What makes it difficult is that the death was ruled a suicide. But in a complicated although ingenious plot, Carroll not only plows ahead, but has to tackle the job while attempting to save his job (and those of his co-workers) when one of his suspects is near to purchasing the paper. And there are numerous other suspects to deal with as well. He story is peppered with all kinds of Hollywood tales, some of which are outlandish but amusing enough to lighten the mood. The author provides an entertaining parody of the silver screen industry and exaggerates the elements of the noir genre at the same time. The plot moves ahead at a measured pace, with well-developed characters who contribute to the over-all thrust regarding the California culture during the heyday of Clifton Webb, William Powell, Myrna Loy, and even their Thin Man dog, Asta, among many others. Highly recommended.

tongue in cheek "Hollywood" Noir

San Francisco Bulletin film critic (and one book author with a few sales to his mom) Carroll Quint receives a call from his mother, retired two bit actress Karen Kass. Her Hollywood roommate Ulla Kjeldson apparently committed suicide in Sausalito; she knew the Norwegian born Ulla as Vicky Vandamn and does not believe her friend whom she lost touch with would kill herself. Karen demands Carroll investigate a homicide that the lazy police call suicide so they can avoid an inquiry. Just after the mom call, the newspaper's editor Katherine "The Great" Parkham, who knows Carroll is a super card player (thanks to his maternal "Uncle Crime") asks Carroll to prove that Charlie Talbot, son of ruthless Sir Charles, is cheating in their friendly poker game. He will play with them at the Talbot estate. Also going to a gala there is the paper's art critic and Carroll's on and off girlfriend Terry Greco who is working a Talbot museum exhibition. At cards he catches how Charlie cheats, which does not endear him to the punk. On the Vicky front, he seeks a manuscript called Payback that she was writing while he receives "help" from Della the psychic, Bert the peaking Tom, Freeze the retired Noir cop, Sir Charles' fifth trophy wife Erica and of course Terry. However, the murder of art curator Ron Maleuw occurs; tying the two cases together with him in the middle holding jokers. STILL SHOT pays homage to the tough screen sleuths like Marlowe and Spade (Carroll's first tale JIGSAW revered Hitchcock). Yet even with this adulation this remains a tongue in cheek "Hollywood" Noir that takes place approximately four hundred miles to the north in the Bay Area and Marin County. The story line is fun to follow as Carroll disproves Sir Charles' first assessment that he is a "barmeake"; keep in mind the source of calling him an a-hole British slang is a guy who burned an original Matisse. Harriet Klausner