Stardust

Starred review from July 6, 2009
James Ellroy fans will find a lot to like in this gritty look at post-WWII Hollywood from Edgar-winner Kanon (Los Alamos
). Ben Collier, recently returned to the U.S. from service in the Signal Corps in Europe, travels to California after his sister-in-law, Liesl, informs him that his director brother, Danny, has suffered a serious fall from a hotel window. Was it an accident or a suicide attempt? Ben arrives in time to witness his brother briefly emerge from a coma, but soon afterward Danny dies. While Liesl believes the suicide theory, Ben suspects someone pushed Danny out the window and turns amateur detective to identify the culprit. In a noirish twist, the widowed Liesl comes on to Ben. The stakes rise after Ben learns Danny was playing a part in an anticommunist crusade a congressman is launching against the film industry. Kanon perfectly balances action and introspection, while smoothly integrating such real-life figures as actress Paulette Goddard into the plot.

At first, this novel, which begins on a cross-country train ride from New York to California in 1945, feels as if it has too much back story to get out of the station. With war-torn Europe a recent memory, Kanon offers an account of two brothers, a possible murder, deception, betrayal, and espionage, all wrapped up in the bad old days of Hollywood. Narrator T. Ryder Smith does little to alleviate the sluggish start. At the outset, his cautious voice drapes a somber mood over the story. But as Kanon's deftly conceived puzzle pieces begin to fit together, the plot gathers momentum, and Smith's early choices make sense. Each of Smith's characters has a distinctive personality, and his narration conjures up a strong sense of place that reveals the darkness beneath the tinsel. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine