REVIEW: Hollywood Bound (Gin & Jazz Book 1)

Morticia Knight

Publisher:  Pride Publishing (November 1, 2013)

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Review written by Christopher Hawthorne Moss

Meeting Morticia  Knight at the GRNW conference in Seattle led to asking her about her historical novels, and did I ever find a treasure trove! I decided to start with an era I’m coming to love, the one Britta Adams uses, the 1920s. Knight has a series called “Gin and Jazz” which proved remarkably fruitful.

This novel is about two boys who were basically street kids when they meet. They start out in a crummy little theater but decide that going to Hollywood and becoming actors would be a great idea. The two are a more worldly young man and his bright-eyed and bushy-tailed younger friend. And there’s more than a little larceny in the older one.

They take off from New York City to hop trains until they get to California. They find an apartment to share and start to make the rounds of the studios. The younger boy is appealing and has a natural bent for the acting of the time. The other starts out painting sets but is more than a little intimidated by his younger friend’s success. The two are obviously in love, but the corruption of Hollywood starts to be too much for them. After they meet a flapper with a bit of a drug and alcohol habit, things start to deteriorate. One finds success while the other is forced to run away.