The Ticket Out - Softcover

Helen Knode was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1957. She worked as a film critic and columnist for the L.A. Weekly from 1985 to 1991. She now lives in Northern California with her husband, bestselling author James Ellroy. This is her first novel.

"This smart novel . . . catapults desire, greed and ambition into murder and gruesome acts of violence." -- USA Today

Ann Whitehead is sick of her job. She's a movie critic for a counterculture rag in Los Angeles and she needs a break. Instead of a break, she gets a murder. A beautiful woman dies in Ann's bathtub and Ann feels compelled to investigate. The victim is a film school grad and industry hopeful: it's the Hollywood story Ann has always wanted to write.
Ann's search for the killer becomes a search for the victim's missing script. The lost script tells of another murder, yet another dead woman, in L.A. in 1944. Suddenly there are two killers and what looks like a complicated conspiracy spanning decades. As the number of dead and dying women grows, Ann has a revelation: the people she meets want into Hollywood so bad they'll commit any crime to get there.

Helen Knode was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1957. She worked as a film critic and columnist for the L.A. Weekly from 1985 to 1991. She lives in Northern California with her husband, bestselling author James Ellroy. This is her first novel.

"This smart novel . . . catapults desire, greed and ambition into murder and gruesome acts of violence." -- USA Today

Ann Whitehead is sick of her job. She's a movie critic for a counterculture rag in Los Angeles and she needs a break. Instead of a break, she gets a murder. A beautiful woman dies in Ann's bathtub and Ann feels compelled to investigate. The victim is a film school grad and industry hopeful: it's the Hollywood story Ann has always wanted to write.
Ann's search for the killer becomes a search for the victim's missing script. The lost script tells of another murder, yet another dead woman, in L.A. in 1944. Suddenly there are two killers and what looks like a complicated conspiracy spanning decades. As the number of dead and dying women grows, Ann has a revelation: the people she meets want into Hollywood so bad they'll commit any crime to get there.

Helen Knode was born in Calgary, Alberta, in 1957. She worked as a film critic and columnist for the L.A. Weekly from 1985 to 1991. She lives in Northern California with her husband, bestselling author James Ellroy. This is her first novel.

Ann Whitehead is sick of her job. She's a movie critic for a counterculture rag in Los Angeles and she needs a break. Instead of a break, she gets a murder. A beautiful woman dies in Ann's bathtub and Ann feels compelled to investigate. The victim is a film school grad and Industry hopeful: it's the Hollywood story Ann has always wanted to write.
LAPD is also working the murder. Douglas Lockwood is the lead investigator, a talented detective whose career has been derailed by scandal.
Ann falls hard for him but won't let herself know it. She's too busy chasing leads, digging at the victim's past, and turning Lockwood into a journalistic challenge: he never talks to the media. On his side, Lockwood wishes Ann would go away. He doesn't need a girl journalist running loose, messing with his crime scene and upsetting the witnesses.
Ann's search for the killer becomes a search for the victim's missing script. The lost script tells of another murder, yet another dead woman, in L.A. in 1944. Suddenly there are two killers and a complicated conspiracy spanning decades. As the number of dead and dying women grows, Ann has a revelation: the people she meets want into Hollywood so bad they'll commit any crime to get there.

Ann Whitehead is sick of her job. She's a movie critic for a counterculture rag in Los Angeles and she needs a break. Instead of a break, she gets a murder. A beautiful woman dies in Ann's bathtub and Ann feels compelled to investigate. The victim is a film school grad and Industry hopeful: it's the Hollywood story Ann has always wanted to write.
LAPD is also working the murder. Douglas Lockwood is the lead investigator, a talented detective whose career has been derailed by scandal.
Ann falls hard for him but won't let herself know it. She's too busy chasing leads, digging at the victim's past, and turning Lockwood into a journalistic challenge: he never talks to the media. On his side, Lockwood wishes Ann would go away. He doesn't need a girl journalist running loose, messing with his crime scene and upsetting the witnesses.
Ann's search for the killer becomes a search for the victim's missing script. The lost script tells of another murder, yet another dead woman, in L.A. in 1944. Suddenly there are two killers and a complicated conspiracy spanning decades. As the number of dead and dying women grows, Ann has a revelation: the people she meets want into Hollywood so bad they'll commit any crime to get there.