The Sharpest Needle

by Renee Patrick

Overview

Ready to mingle with the stars? Hollywood's A-list takes centre stage once again in this stylish, twisty and sharply observed Golden Age of Hollywood mystery featuring irresistible sleuthing duo Lillian Frost and Edith Head. Effortlessly blending oodles of glamour and famous (and fictional) names with a stunningly crafted whodunit, this compelling, vibrant tale is bursting with twists and shocking moments. Love gossip, rumour and scandalous secrets? This page-turning read is perfect for fans of Classic Hollywood films and all mystery-loving fashionistas.

What happens when your past catches up with you?

Lillian Frost and Edith Head investigate a series of bizarre poison pen letters sent to a leading Hollywood actress in this mesmerising mystery.

1939, Los Angeles. Marion Davies has a problem. The actress has received poison pen letters highlighting an embarrassing event in her past from the mysterious 'Argus'. Can Lillian Frost and her friend and partner-in-crime, celebrated costume designer Edith Head, expose the writer before they expose Marion? Lillian's boss, millionaire inventor Addison Rice, seems to think so, but when Lillian speaks to her idol, Marion is reluctant to reveal her secrets, fearful of jeopardizing her affair with newspaper tycoon W.R. Hearst.

Is a prankster simply trying to tarnish the reputation of one of Hollywood's leading ladies, or is something more sinister going on behind the scenes? As Lillian and Edith are drawn into increasingly dangerous and disturbing territory, their enquiries take an unexpected and stunningly dark twist . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727889287
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	02/02/2021
Series:	A Lillian Frost and Edith Head mystery , #4
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.98(h) x (d)

About the Author

Renee Patrick is the pseudonym for married authors Rosemarie and Vince Keenan. Rosemarie is a research administrator and a poet. Vince is a screenwriter and a journalist. Both native New Yorkers, they currently live in Seattle, Washington. The Sharpest Needle is the fourth title starring Lillian Frost and Edith Head. The most recent in the series, Script for Scandal, is also published by Severn House.

Editorial Reviews

The story, concerning a bank robbery, is genuinely gripping. Well done

null Booklist on Script for Scandal

2020-10-27
As Hitler’s troops mass at the Polish border during Hollywood’s annus mirabilis of 1939, Paramount costume designer Edith Head and her amanuensis, Lillian Frost, are saddled with a much smaller mystery. At least it looks smaller.

Someone signing themselves Argus has been sending silent film star Marion Davies anonymous notes as cryptic as they are menacing. And not just Marion, best known these days as the mistress of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, but retired makeup artist Clarence Baird and his pinochle buddy, assistant director Rudi Vollmer. Having heard all about Edith and Lillian’s earlier sleuthing successes, Marion wants them to make Argus stop. In short order, the two women arrange to meet with Clarence and Rudi; Edith alertly identifies Clarence as Argus; and Clarence, presumably stricken by guilt, kills himself. Except his death isn’t really a suicide, as LAPD Detective Gene Morrow, Lillian’s former swain, indicates, and the notes from Argus don’t stop—they just switch from handwritten to typewritten. Clearly there’s more going on here, and Lillian suspects it’s connected to a spike in local interest in the work of Paolo Montsalvo, Mussolini’s favorite painter, and the reappearance of American-born Nazi Kaspar Biel, whose role as cultural attaché only hints at his involvement in deep-laid secrets. Among the many celebrity cameos—Orson Welles, Wally Westmore, Mitchell Leisen, Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, Paulette Goddard, Charlie Chaplin—the most notable is the absence of Marion’s cousin Herman Mankiewicz, who fed Welles much of the insider material for Citizen Kane.Maybe Patrick is saving him for the next installment.

The scattershot mystery is consistently upstaged by Hollywood gossip. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Kirkus Reviews

A delightful and entertaining story with unexpected twists and turns ... If you enjoy a fast-paced detective story with a sprinkle of humor, this might be the perfect book for you

Historical Novels Review

The story, concerning a bank robbery, is genuinely gripping. Well done

Booklist on Script for Scandal

Vibrant, stylish and crackling, Design for Dying is both a gift to devotees of Golden Age Hollywood and a mystery lover's delight. It's a delicious cocktail, one you won't want to end

bestselling author Megan Abbott

Entertaining… Patrick elegantly weaves Hollywood gossip and history into the well-crafted plot. This is a tailor-made treat for film buffs - Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

A solid mystery, but it’s the imaginative blending of real and fictional history that really sells the book … The emergence of Head as a fully fleshed character, along with evermore- engaging, Hollywood-based stories, has made [this series] something quite special

Booklist

The story is intricate and surprising, and the partnership between Head and her good friend Frost sets the stage for many further adventures

Booklist on Dangerous to Know

A solid mystery, but it’s the imaginative blending of real and fictional history that really sells the book … The emergence of Head as a fully fleshed character, along with evermore- engaging, Hollywood-based stories, has made [this series] something quite special

Booklist