The Wrong Girl

September 16, 2019
Set mostly in Hollywood in 1926, this predictable series launch from Casey (the Alafair Tucker mysteries) introduces actor Bianca LaBelle, whose motion pictures about Bianca Dangereuse, “a Nelly Bly–type journalist and adventurer” are “the biggest money-making movie franchise in the entire Western world.” Bianca feels threatened after a private detective visits her at her Beverly Hills mansion to inquire about Graham Peyton, who went missing in 1921 and whose remains surfaced a week earlier on a Santa Monica beach. Bianca knows too much about Graham, who lured her to Hollywood with promises of stardom in 1920 when she was 15-year-old Blanche Tucker living in Boynton, Okla., but then sold her to a pimp from whom she later escaped. Despite the plot points of con men preying on young women, sexual abuse, ruthless mobsters, and drugs, the danger is as nonmenacing as that in Bianca’s Perils of Pauline–esque flicks. All that’s missing from this melodrama is a mustache-twirling villain. Nevertheless, Casey’s portrait of how stars were born and kept their status during Hollywood’s silent era will intrigue film buffs.

October 18, 2019

Blanche Tucker is naïve and desperate to escape her small-town existence in Boynton, OK. She falls prey to the charismatic Graham Peyton, who promises her fame and fortune if she will run away with him. Barely escaping his nefarious plans, Blanche strikes out on her own. Six years later, she is widely known as Bianca LaBelle, the enigmatic movie star. However, when Peyton's skeletal remains are uncovered, private detective Ted Oliver is hired to find out who killed him. Unfortunately, the clues lead him straight to LaBelle. Did the glamorous starlet murder Peyton? With this new series launch, Casey ("Alafair Tucker" mysteries) performs a little genre-bending, penning a coming-of-age tale within the context of a 1920s-set cozy mystery that could just as easily been ripped from today's headlines. VERDICT Old Hollywood, silent film stars, the Jazz Age, and strong female characters all combine to create a solid read for crime fiction fans of all stripes.--Julie Whiteley, Stephenville, TX

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