Book Review: Hollywood Horrors by Andrea Van Landingham

About:

Hollywood Horrors: Murders, Scandals, and Cover-Ups from Tinseltown by Andrea Van Landingham covers some of the most newsworthy (at the time) and strange cases of Hollywood crimes. This is Ms. Van Landingham first book.

• 312 pages
• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Lyons Press
  
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1493060074

My rat­ing for Hollywood Horrors — 4
Buy Hollywood Horrors from Amazon.com*
More Books by Andrea Van Landingham*

Thoughts:

Despite the catching title, this is a well-researched, serious true crime book. Hollywood Horrors: Murders, Scandals, and Cover-Ups from Tinseltown by Andrea Van Landingham tells of dark past of Tinseltown, where movies stars, studios, as well as criminals are almost indistinguishable.

Some of the cases are famous to this day, for instance Black Dahlia, and Fatty Arbuckle instance (which author Ace Atkins wrote a fantastic book about), others not as much. The book’s secondary topic is an actual history of Hollywood, chiefly looking through a true-crime lens.

Even though I was always fascinated by the entertainment industry, the more I learned about it, generally the less enticing it seems. Behind all the glamour there’s literal and figurative blood shedding. A friend who is a professional TV cameraman even told me without a doubt, that in TV the saying is “if it bleeds, it dies”.

The lives of the stars, produces, and others were full of heartbreak, stress, leaving it up to others to manager their lives. Heartbreaking stories, such as screen siren Lana Turner caught up in a bad marriages to criminals, as well as pedophiles,  never stopping to love her first husband, Artie Shaw.

The writing is clear, as well as entertaining (despite the subject matter), and organized. The author includes photos of many of the book’s subject, and an impressive list of sources. She writes in a respectful, thoughtful manner and certainly avoids tabloid journalism as much as possible.

Buy Hollywood Horrors from Amazon.com*
More Books by Andrea Van Landingham*

Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I got this book for free.
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account, the money is usually spent on books