What fascinates him most is that hers is a face he knows so well—­not aged, as it is now, but in bygone, camera-­captured flawless youth. He takes a step toward her, and a dog—­a huge, dark beast of a dog—­emerges from doorway shadow and sniffs the air as if it has caught the odor of fresh meat. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

The plot does feel very busy, but eventually all the pieces come together relatively neatly considering all the moving parts of this story which span decades and multiple locales.A terrifying thrill ride through the hidden chasms of the human soul' Chris Brookmyre 'I absolutely adored it. m. The sun has already almost set, backlighting a silk screen of sky, crimson fading to rose, fading to indigo. The secrets and lies and the dichotomy of the what the public saw and the lives as they were truly lived by the stars that they all idolised. We follow Conway’s quest as he potentially closes in on his quarry and we are also taken back in time to the making of the film. Five minutes later, the maid is in a cab heading for home, the edge of her grief blunted by the more than a year’s pay in the pocket of her apron, and a telephone number to give as a reference for her next job.

Another hand gesture: the dog follows her, and both are swallowed by the black mouth of the doorway. She makes a mental inventory of the rings, bracelets, and armlet that bejewel Carlton’s body: it totals more than most people will earn in a lifetime. After the water in the lake dried up, so did tourism and the cashflow, leading its destitute owner to kill himself and his family in a horrific murder-suicide.

This is a terrific blend of historical fiction, with its depiction of classic Hollywood, and chilling supernatural elements.