The Devil's Playground

Product Information

Thank you to Craig Russell, Netgalley, and Doubleday Publishing for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review. There were plenty of devotees of the psychic and weird in silent Hollywood, but these didn't come off as creepy enough.

Populated with a truly memorable cast, Playground is a guaranteed one-sitting read…and how can you resist a novel about the scariest movie of all time? Indeed, Tinseltown aficionados and fans of the likes of James Ellroy and Raymond Chandler will devour The Devil’s Playground, as will any reader who appreciates a tightly plotted, propulsive story filled with multilayered characters. Craig Russell’s The Devil’s Playground is a lavish production of the golden age of Hollywood… Deliciously, the cool, hard-bitten tone of Mary’s chapters is in lockstep with that of a classic noir. Norma was part of the alleged cursed production of the epic silent movie The Devil's Playground of which there is alleged to be only a single copy remaining.When Rourke finds Carlton dead, she wonders if the dark rumors she’s heard are true: that The Devil’s Playground really is a cursed production. After the water in the lake dried up, so did tourism and the cashflow, leading its destitute owner to kill himself and his family in a horrific murder-suicide.

There’s also an interesting cast of characters, notably Mary Rourke who is the ‘fixer’ employed by the studio making the film. As she passes, she looks into the parked police wagon and, seeing it is empty, walks on through the open gates and up to the house. I think I would have enjoyed this more if it had just been dual timelines with equal time spent on both. And it’s not just the Hollywood set who demand her attention and her focus, there being a secondary thread to this story, one that informs Mary’s investigation in an unexpected way.Paul Conway, a journalist and self-professed film aficionado, is on the trail of a tantalizing rumor.