Hollywood and LeVine by Andrew Bergman (1975)

I really enjoyed this, but I'd probably enjoy any story that concluded with Humphrey Bogart at the wheel of a speeding car. Set in Hollywood in the 'Forties. LeVine, to use his own words, is a balding, overweight private eye. An old friend in the screen writing business calls him to Hollywood to work on a case, but Le Vine gets there only to find his client swinging from a gallows on the Warners studio lot.

Andrew Bergman

LeVine Guesses that more is going on here than mere artistic conflict, and soon stumbles onto a CIA scheme to uncover Communist infiltration into the Hollywood movie system. There are numerous appearances by celebrities of the time (including a very young congressman, Richard Nixon). And if this book has pressed the right buttons for you so far, you'll probably love the car chase at the end (the best since the one in Richard Brautigan's Dreaming of Babylon) with none other than Humphrey Bogart at the wheel. Leave your serious face at the door and enjoy.

This is the second in Andrew Bergman's Jack LeVine trilogy, the others being The Big Kiss-Off of 1944 (1974), and Tender is LeVine (2001).

Very short write-up this time, mainly because my review was scanned from stuff written in the days I used a steam typewriter. But God, overall I wrote more in those days before the net!

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