Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen

Perhaps the best place in 1943 Hollywood to see the stars is The Hollywood Canteen, a club for servicemen staffed exclusively by the entertainment industry. Annie Laurence definitely hopes to rub elbows with the stars - maybe then she can get her movie made. After a devastating surprise breakup, she moved from New York to Hollywood to start her new life as a screenwriter of murder mysteries--only to learn that the controlling studio head thinks women can only write light romances. At her second night at the Canteen, however, a particularly vicious critic is murdered. Annie falls in with the critic's old friends, a bitter and cynical group--each as uniquely unhappy in their life and career as Annie is in hers--that call themselves the Ambassador's Club. Even though the critic's death is officially ruled a suicide, Annie comes to believe that one friend-- or maybe a disgruntled former friend-- is trying to off the group one by one. Unfortunately, that now includes her. "This vibrant, utterly delightful mystery expertly captures the drama, glamour and absurdity of wartime Hollywood. Sarah James's swift dialogue, dry wit and clever characters transport you into a 1940s movie, where the jokes are quick, the love affairs scandalous and the cast as charming as they are flawed. Underneath it all, James's deep knowledge of the era's movies and music lends an authenticity that makes the rest shine even brighter. I laughed, I gasped and I never wanted it to end. This should head straight to the top of every must-read list." --Brianna Labuskes, author of The Librarian of Burned Books