The Devil's Playground
Ratings2
Average rating4.5
15
Ratings2
Average rating4.5
A riveting 1920s Hollywood thriller about the making of the most terrifying silent film ever made, and a deadly search for the single copy rumored still to exist, from the internationally acclaimed author of The Devil Aspect. "An excellent, engrossing historical horror novel."—New York Times Book Review "Rich and riveting...a masterful thriller." —Lincoln Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author "Addictive." —A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window "Totally engaging." —Kathy Reichs, author of the Temperance Brennan series 1927: Mary Rourke—a Hollywood studio fixer—is called urgently to the palatial home of Norma Carlton, one of the most recognizable stars in American silent film. Norma has been working on the secret film everyone is openly talking about... a terrifying horror picture called The Devil’s Playground that is rumored to have unleashed a curse on everyone involved in the production. Mary finds Norma’s cold, dead body, and she wonders for just a moment if these dark rumors could be true. 1967: Paul Conway, a journalist and self-professed film aficionado, is on the trail of a tantalizing rumor. He has heard that a single copy of The Devil’s Playground—a Holy Grail for film buffs—may exist. He knows his Hollywood history and he knows the film endured myriad tragedies and ended up lost to time. The Devil's Playground is Craig Russell’s tour de force, a richly researched and constructed thriller that weaves through the Golden Age of Hollywood and reveals a blossoming industry built on secrets, invented identities, and a desperate pursuit of image. As Mary Rourke charges headlong through the egos, distractions, and traps that threaten to take her down with the doomed production, she discovers a truth far more sinister than she—or we—could have imagined.
Reviews with the most likes.
A fantanstic noir set in old Hollywood. A bit of mystery, with some thrills, chills and a bit of horror mixed in. Fantastic characters and prose that makes you feel like you are in a 1940's film noir. Cannot say too much about the plot without giving away too much, just to say that if you like Noir, mysterys, and well written period pieces, this novel would be for you.
5 Stars. Might be the best mystery I have read in 2023.
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel for its immersive setting in the early days of Hollywood, as well as for its mystery plot. I was engaged throughout and looked forward to picking the book up again after putting it down. That said, I have a degree in film and I am obsessed with murder mysteries so this novel centered around two of my biggest interests. I particularly liked the protagonist, Mary Rourke, and favored the chapters that followed her versus the Louisiana subplot.
I knocked it down a star because it had a few imperfections that bothered me: namely, the first chapter, the high body count, and the elongated ending that didn't leave me fully satisfied. I almost put the book down thinking I'd made a mistake after the first page. The author has a fondness for (take note) double-word adjectives that got more tolerable over time but the first couple paragraphs had excessive detail describing the desert. I'm glad I kept going with it.
My biggest gripe is that the author really played up the antagonist as evil incarnate and, I don't know about everyone else, but when we're dealing with a stark good versus evil binary, I want good to prevail with a magnificent flourish in the end. Otherwise, there needs to be more grey area. There were so many (I mean, so many) deaths that were the result of being brainwashed by pure evil that I was ready for the antagonist to finally meet their match in the end.
Besides that, I would recommend this one to fans of noir mystery and old Hollywood.
