Lone Star (Edna Ferber Mysteries) - Softcover

"Ifkovicas promising debut, the first in a series, features real-life writer Edna Ferber as an amateur sleuth in 1955 Hollywood. The Pulitzer Prize winner is visiting there because her bestselling novel, /Giant/, is being made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean. While sheas repelled at how show biz distorts the thinking of everyone involved in it, she becomes fascinated by young Deanatruculent, winsome, infuriating and brilliant. Though heas the hottest actor in town, heas still vulnerable to blackmail letters from an unstable actress, so heas the prime suspect when sheas murdered. The septuagenarian Ferber, an equally shrewd but tarter version of Miss Marple, begins investigating with the help of /Giant/ co-star Mercedes McCambridge, sorting through a city built on vanity and glamour. Ifkovic handles the mystery plot competently, but the main pleasure is looking beneath the surface of the movie business to see the stars as people, in particular the "Ifkovicas promising debut, the first in a series, features real-life writer Edna Ferber as an amateur sleuth in 1955 Hollywood. The Pulitzer Prize winner is visiting there because her bestselling novel, /Giant/, is being made into a film starring Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and James Dean. While sheas repelled at how show biz distorts the thinking of everyone involved in it, she becomes fascinated by young Deanatruculent, winsome, infuriating and brilliant. Though heas the hottest actor in town, heas still vulnerable to blackmail letters from an unstable actress, so heas the prime suspect when sheas murdered. The septuagenarian Ferber, an equally shrewd but tarter version of Miss Marple, begins investigating with the help of /Giant/ co-star Mercedes McCambridge, sorting through a city built on vanity and glamour. Ifkovic handles the mystery plot competently, but the main pleasure is looking beneath the surface of the movie business to see the stars as people, in particular the doomed Dean." -- "Publishers Weekly" of "Lone Star," April 2009 A promising debut in what could be a long-running and highly entertaining series.... --"Booklist "of "Lone Star""

Praise for Lone Star... "A promising [first] in what could be a long-running and highly entertaining series." -Booklist It's 1955, and Edna Ferber is basking in the success of her blockbuster novel Giant. Headed to Los Angeles, where director George Stevens and Warner Brothers Studio are filming her Texas oil epic, she is eager to meet Rock Hudson, Liz Taylor, and especially the young James Dean. But there is trouble brewing. Dean, the new box-office sensation and teen heartthrob, has been accused of fathering a child with an unstable (and recently fired) extra named Carisa Krausse. The studio fears the negative publicity will jeopardize the release of the movie. Then the actress is murdered. James Dean was seen at her apartment moments before Carisa's death. The police are ready to arrest him. With actress Mercedes McCambridge as her sympathetic sidekick, Edna investigates, determined to clear Dean's name. As she delves into Hollywood's dark side, Edna discovers a powerful studio obsessed with a cover-up and a solution she doesn't want to accept.... Ed Ifkovic taught literature and creative writing at a community college in Connecticut for more than three decades. His short stories and essays have appeared in the Village Voice, America, Hartford Monthly, and the Journal of Popular Culture. Lone Star is his debut novel.