The Fame Thief

April 8, 2013
In Hallinan’s satisfying third Junior Bender novel (after Little Elvises), the L.A. burglar/PI continues to excavate show business’s forgotten past, investigating in this installment the also-rans of postwar Hollywood. Dolores La Marr’s ascent to movie stardom was quickly halted in 1951 when she was found at a gangland party in a police raid. Decades later, 93-year-old attorney Irwin Dressler, Southern California’s most feared powerbroker, is still infatuated with her. When Irwin asks, or rather orders, Junior to determine who set up Dolores all those years ago, the detective must comb through the short list of Dolores’s surviving acquaintances, including publicist Pinky Pinkerton, louche director Doug Trent, and arch-rival actress Olivia Dupont. Hallinan de-emphasizes the series’ dark humor and recurring characters—like Junior’s teenage daughter, Rina, and his girlfriend, Ronnie—offering instead convincing flashbacks to Dolores’s early Hollywood adventures and a sincere look at her eternally deferred Hollywood dreams. Agent: Bob Mecoy, Bob Mecoy Literary.

Starred review from May 1, 2013

Professional burglar Junior Bender agrees to help mobster/movie mogul Irwin Dressler find out who ruined beautiful starlet Dolores La Marr back in the early 1950s. Dressler's bucket list includes finding out who set up Dolores so that her "good name" was stolen. Apparently, back in 1951, the lovely starlet was caught up in a raid, then kept in jail when all the others got their charges dropped and she eventually had to testify in front of Senate subcommittee hearings on organized crime. The investigation dredges up old vendettas, putting everyone involved in danger. Meanwhile, an engaging subplot involving Junior's family adds a slightly comic air to the book. VERDICT Hallinan's natural storytelling skills will hold readers rapt through his Shakespeare-quoting, five-act tale as they relish his attention to Los Angeles cultural details and ability to weave two time periods together so effectively. This third series entry (after Little Elvises) manages to keep it simultaneously playful yet empathetic.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2013
Junior Bender is a thief and a good one, but he has a second gig: solving crimes for bad guys. Naturally, the bad guys can't take their cases to the authorities, but who says bad guys don't want justice, too? That's where Junior comes in. This time he's working for eightysomething Irwin Dressler, Hollywood Mob boss, who wants to right a 60-year-old wrong. Dolores La Marr was an up-and-coming starlet when she was linked to Vegas gangsters and her career trashed. Dressler is sure she was set up and wants Junior to figure out who was behind the frame. A cold case is one thing, but a long-frozen one is quite another. Still, Dressler is not somebody you argue with, so Junior begins asking questions, and the people he gets answers from promptly start dying. The tangled plot unwinds eventually, producing some surprises along the wayand a wealth of golden age Hollywood ambiencebut the real draw here remains the fast-talking, quick-thinking Junior, a slightly seedier but equally entertaining version of Lawrence Block's Bernie Rhodenbarr. If comic crime is your thing, you need to know Junior Bender.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)