Death by Hollywood

by Steven Bochco

Book Overview

Bobby Newman's career is fading fast. One drunken evening, Bobby sits down with his Bushnell telescope and spies a couple making love in a nearby house. When they've finished, the woman, whom Bobby... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400061563
• ISBN13: 9781400061563
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Random House (NY)
• Length: 274 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Great read with a twist...but rated R for language

This book was a great easy read. I read it in a day and the plot was great. Very twisty about a man who witnesses a murder and it just unravels from there. However, the F word was used a ton. So this should be an R rated book.

Thoroughly Enjoyable

This was a great read; unfortunately it only lasted two days because I couldn't put it down. I especially enjoyed the manner in which the storylines were interwoven, almost a story within a story, like the Arabian Nights. Due to the "grittiness" of the characters it would be easy to overlook important and interesting observations on the human condition; several passages made me stop and ponder about life, attitudes, etc.

It REALLY is a suprise ending!

This book was a page turner and grabs you from the very beginning. It's plot twists were well thought out. It didn't seem like it often does that the author is just making it up as they go. Often times it feels that the author is forcing a close to a book just so it won't go on forever. Death By Hollywood wrapped up PERFECTLY well and I was completely satisfied.

A Good Murder Equals a Better Screenplay

Lately Screenwriter Bobby Newman's fingers spend more time wrapped around a bottle then they do tapping on a keyboard. He's got writer's block, but his eyes aren't blocked and they spend the evenings peeping through his high-powered telescope, spying on his neighbors. And one evening Bobby sees the wife of a Hollywood millionaire smack her Latin lover with an acting trophy, killing him. He hustles over to the murder scene, finds the body. He also finds that the Latin Lover made videos of his sexual conquests and graded them A to F. And, to his shock, he sees that his wife Vee is a B+. He takes the tape, along with the tape of the murder. He gets an idea to solve his little writer's block problem. He decides to do a screenplay about the murder. He gets close to both the murderer, and the detective in charge of the case n order to get inside the minds of the future protagonists of his screenplay. The story is told by Bobby's cynical agent, Eddie Jelko who is recounting the story as Bobby has told it to him. This is a witty story told by a Hollywood insider about Hollywood, it's goings on real and imagined. The people may not exactly be the types you'd want to live next door to, but they are entertaining, I know, because I couldn't put the book down.

read it in a day...excellent

What more can I say? The reviews below pretty much tell it like it is. A page-turner. Dialogue was off the chains. Great characters, Hollywood-style. And an excellent O.Henry-style ending. www.ericjeromedickey.com