Browsing through a Hollywood memorabilia shop, private investigator Jeri Howard chats with an elderly man about her grandmother, Jerusha Layne, who worked as a bit player for several movie studios in the 1940s. The man recognizes her grandmother's name in connection with the unsolved murder of actor Ralph Tarrant. Surprised by this information, Jeri begins investigating her grandmother's years in Hollywood.
As Jeri reads letters written by her grandmother we are taken back to pre-World War II Hollywood, meeting Jerusha Layne, her actress housemates, and two soon-to-be murdered contemporaries. The story moves between the time periods. In modern-day California, on the trail of a long-ago murderer, Jeri discovers links to more recent murders. She will have to work carefully to not fall victim herself.
Jeri Howard's world is full of local flavor (and coffee), and Jerusha Layne's life comes alive with the name-dropping, film-listing only found in Hollywood. Dawson's knowledge of movie trivia is extensive, as is her knowledge of investigative skills. Jeri is a thorough, persistent private investigator, and we follow her as she searches the internet, libraries, police files, and government records. She interviews friends, neighbors, friends of neighbors, relatives, and anyone who might give her a clue that will solve the mystery.
Fans of Jeri Howard will be delighted with her newest mystery, and fans of historical fiction will enjoy the nostalgia of old Hollywood and pre-World War II America. ( )

When a stranger implies the Grandmother she was named after may have had something to do with Ralph Tarrant’s murder, PI Jeri Howard’s interest is piqued. Jeri’s grandmother was a ‘bit player’ in the 1940’s. She had small parts in a lot of major films and the thought of her having anything to do with an unknown actor’s murder was preposterous and Jeri had to prove it.
Calling in favors, she starts investigating a mystery that started years before she was born. First things first, Jeri needed to figure out who the old man at the shop counter was and how he came about this ‘information’. As she digs into his and the shop owner’s backgrounds, she has more questions than answers. Greatly suspicious, Jeri follows her second lead, her grandmother’s old letters. Visiting family, Jeri is transported back into the world her grandmother lived in through her words and gets some interesting insights.
Flashbacks show what Jerusha Layne’s life was like back then and what was going on, but it also adds more mysteries to Jeri’s plate. Another murder, this one closer to her grandmother presents itself and since both it and Tarrant’s murders are unsolved, Jeri knows there has to be a connection. Throughout, she knows there is something fishy with the old man and the shop owners, but how does it all tie together?
This is an interesting addition to the Jeri Howard Mysteries. When you read the ‘flashbacks’ you actually feel like you are in the 1940’s.

Reviewed by Ashley Wintters for Suspense Magazine ( )

Browsing in a Hollywood memorabilia shop, PI Jeri Howard comes across a poster that reminds her of her paternal grandmother, Jerusha Layne Howard who had been a bit player in the movies before her marriage.
The elderly man behind the counter of a Hollywood memorabilia shop tells PI Jeri Howard that her paternal grandmother and namesake Jerusha Layne Howard, once a bit player in the movies, had been involved in the investigation of the murder of a British actor named Ralph Tarrant. He didn't specify what Jerusha's role was, but the comment is enough to pique Jeri's curiosity.

She contacts her elderly Aunt Dulcie, in the hope that Jerusha's sister might remember something, and is thrilled to learn that Dulcie has saved the letters she received from Jerusha during those years. Reading them, Jeri finds out that her grandmother had shared a house with three other young actresses, and that one of them had dated Tarrant.

While searching for background information about the old man in the memorabilia store, Jeri stumbles onto the murder of a woman who collected Hollywood memorabilia, who had refused to sell any of her items to the store. When another collector is killed a few weeks later, Jeri begins to wonder if the present-day murders might be related to the decades-old case involving Jerusha. As Jeri investigates, the reader learns along with her many real details about the early days of the movie industry.

Dawson's first Jeri Howard novel since A Killing at the Track(2000), is a riveting mystery, at once historical and contemporary, for which she has obviously done deep and thorough research into the Golden Age of Hollywood.

*FTC Full Disclosure: Many thanks to the publisher, who sent me a copy of the book for review purposes. ( )

A welcome return of Jeri Howard as she investigate an allegation that her late grandmother was involved in the 1942 murder of an actor when she was in Hollywood as an extra and then a bit player. Jeri investigates an old crime that leads her to more recent ones. ( )