Books set in Los Angeles this Travel Tuesday
Books set in Los Angeles, the city of Angels make some of the most popular Booktrails. Los Angeles is a city of many faces. On one hand, it’s the city of the stars, glamour and fame. However, on the other hand, it’s a city of dark contrasts, shady characters and a VERY interesting past. Sometimes truth is much stranger than fiction.
How about a bit of both? Most locations are real, back stories are inspired by real life events…..exciting!
BookTrail Books set in Los Angeles
So which of these Books set in Los Angeles will be your favourite?
Still Lives by Maria Hummel
Setting: The art world
This is a novel which mixes art and the interpretation of art. What IS art? That’s the question you will be asking yourself after reading this. An artist is showing a series of self-portraits in which she impersonates the female victims of America’s most famous murderers. Real life victims such as Nicole Brown are amongst them. It’s controversial and that’s where the novel draws its themes – what is art and what happens when a controversial artist causes the most controversy herself?
The Syndicate by Guy Bolton
Setting: The gangster world and high class casinos
This is a clever novel. Real life events mixed with even more power and an essence of the gangster/moll world thanks to the brilliant writing of Guy Bolton. It’s as if he’s stepped back in time to meet infamous mobster Bugsy Siegel and his associates. When Bugsy is murdered, this is a big deal. There is a space at the top of the gangster world and everyone is trying desperately to fill the void. This is a dangerous time in the city.
Jonathan Craine used to be a hotshot in Los Angeles but he’s turned his back on it all. Now summonsed back by the mob and given the task of finding Siegel’s murderers. He knows that if he doesn’t succeed in five days, both he and his son will pay for it with their lives…
BookTrail Books set in Los Angeles
Cold Desert Sky by Rod Reynolds
Setting: the gangster world
Read this book as well as The Syndicate for maximum immersion into the world of Bugsy Siegel. Charlie Yates and his wife are back in LA and trying to stay anonymous. He works as a journalist and discovers a case of two missing Hollywood stars. This then leads him to the man they call Bugsy Siegel, the big mob boss. A man he once crossed.
Siegel is about to open his new Hotel Casino, The Flamingo –he’s a big player in the casino and gangster world and is making his presence felt. The world,as well as the weather, is thick with tension. A lot at stake. Two missing girls. An angry mob. Charlie is at the middle of it all.
The Showrunner by Kim Moritsugu
Setting: the world of the Hollywood runner
They say there’s more than one kind of power struggle in Hollywood and this novel is proof of that. Rising-star showrunner Stacey McCreedy wants to become a power player ― like Ann Dalloni, her former mentor. But Ann is not about to cede her position of power. She hires, Jenna, a young actress as an assistant, but the fight continues. Jenna is at the centre of a huge power struggle where only one woman can win.
Fallen Angels by Tara Hylands
Setting: movie stars and their secrets
This is a novel with many threads which slowly unravel…as so many secrets in Hollywood do. A movie star with a secret, an abandoned child, a suicide and a wealthy businessman…there’s a lot in this novel and it unravels to reveal a Hollywood scene which is not what it seems.
A glamorous cover and a novel which goes back to the glory days of Hollywood in the 1950s…
Hollywood is a city where nothing is at is seems – and these novels capture that with delicious ease. What is real and not real? What is the story behind those we see in Hollywood?
