Rating: 
Summary: Hooray for "Death by Hollywood"!
Review: A light, amusing read for GROWNUPS. I enjoyed this book. If the patois of contemporary left coasters, and the escapades of same, are offensive to you, check out something more sedate. I suggest a Nancy Drew mystery.
Rating: 
Summary: Some really nice passages...
Review: Being always willing to give an industry oriented book a shot, I picked up this entertaining page turner with no preconcieved notions in my head. It was penned by Steven Bochco- the creative force behind TV shows like Hill St. Blues, NYPD Blue, and L.A. Law- and spins a windy tale about a blocked screenwriter, sexual escapades, money, and murder. While the writing is a bit predictable and sluggish at times, and the attempt to come across blunt and gritty just feels forced, its still a fun and entertaining read with a nice touch of dark humor. The narrative is engaging and the twists will make your brain smile. It reads like a decent movie script in need of an editor: fun and full of potential.
Rating: 
Summary: Not mainstream
Review: Death by Hollywood is one of those books you just keep reading in an effort to figure out why you keep reading it. Is the story going to get better? Are the characters going to improve? Where is the story actually going? The book was ok. I got the distinct impression reading it that this book was written for Bochco's Hollywood friends and supporters more than for the public-at-large. There are a lot of "in" references that won't really have any impact on people not affiliated with the biz. I felt like an outsider looking in on this story and it didn't really involve me as much as I'd hoped. Despite being about a murder, the book wasn't that graphic, but was definitely very heavy on profanity. It wasn't scholarly material by any means but was a quick read with some suprisingly good humor about the human existance.
Rating:
Summary: If You Like High Brow Move Along
Review: Go in with the right attitude: PULP FICTION. In the mood for a bunch of well-to-do jerks to get murdered, arrested, drunk along with silly attempts at guilt and remorse and love? In the mood to forget about the deficit, war,election and just read about some good old characatures in an R- to X-rated comic book? This is it, baby.
If you want a real murder mystery, move along. If you love fine writing, move along. If you want a good sex scene, move along. But if you just want the quick fix of entertainment short of simply watching t.v.: This is it, baby.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining Presecptive
Review: I am a true Angelino..meaning, I have had the misfortune of living in Los Angeles my whole. The story is modestly entertaining. But what I found woundefully humorful was the depition of the characters. Bochco's portrayal of the entertainment world and what people will do, sleep with, and even murder for - for thier star on Hollywood had me laughing. The characters personalities, flaws, desires and the sad ironies are what made this book worth reading for this Angelino. Perphaps, a little bit too much truth for the aspiring person trying to make in the entertainment biz. The premise was a bit impracticable..but the way Bochco weaved all the charaters togeter made this book a good read.
Rating:
Summary: Death by Hollywood
Review: I thought that DEATH BY HOLLYWOOD was mediocre and it moved very quickly, so quick in fact that I didn't even realize when I was done.
Written in first person, DEATH BY HOLLYWOOD speaks heavily about the "glamourous" life of Hollywood actors, screenwriters, and their agents. We follow Bobby, a writer who is down on his luck. He catches his wife in action cheating on him, his agent fires him, and he witnesses a murder all in the same day.
He uses this murder to his advantage in hopes that he can make it into a killer screenplay. From then he plots himself into his own misfortune.
Although this wasn't one of the best books I've read, the twists and surprises the book took on at the end really had me going. And for that I give it 3 stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Big Surpise. I LOVED IT!!
Review: I was given this book as a present from someone whom I don't really share the same tastes with; however I started to read it because I really didn't have anything else at the time. I could not believe how I got sucked into this book! It had had some great twists and was very funny at time too. You can really tell this guy knows Hollywood inside and out.
Rating:
Summary: A different type of writing
Review: Steven Bocchco is probably one of the better known producers in Hollywood, with Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue to his credit, among other things. So he's done so well there, he decided to become a novelist like his friend Stephen J. Cannell, who has now written a number of novels. The result is Death by Hollywood, a frothy entertainment with few redeeming features but no real flaws either.The text alternates between first person narration and the points of view of many other characters, with the conceit that the narrator is telling you what he thinks happened when he wasn't there. The narrator is a Hollywood agent named Eddie Jelko, a guy with hundreds of stories and more jokes about the biz than Jay Leno. He represents the main character, Bobby Newman, a down-on-his-luck screenwriter who has writer's block, a drinking problem, and an unfaithful wife who's just decided to leave him. Bobby witnesses a murder in the middle of this, and instead of reporting the killer to the police, as he should, he sees an opportunity to escape his writer's block. Much hilarity ensues, as the law of unforseen consequences boomerangs with a vengeance. I enjoyed this book a good deal. Bocchco proves to be a pretty skilled writer, though the book shows signs of lengthening. There are many jokes and anecdotes that have nothing to do with the main plot, and the margins on the pages are wide, ditto the space between the lines of text. I bet they could have fit this into 180 pages if they'd tried. I suppose this is a result of Bocchco knowing how to write hour-long screenplays, most of the time, rather than longer books. It's a skill you learn, I guess. That being said, this is still a fun book, and I would recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Humor by Bochco
Review: The first 80 pages of this book read like you are listening to a performance by the world's greatest comedian. Hollywood inside jokes abound and I couldn't put the book down even though it was very late at night. Unfortunately, all the time the author has spent having fun in a novel, now has to be wrapped up in a finished book that requires that he tie up all the loose ends. Therefore the last half of the book reads like a screenplay for a one hour TV drama. Hmmm, this author should be experienced at that. Overall, I very much enjoyed this book as a light, funny read with plenty of inside jokes to satisfy followers of the industry. It then becomes the solving of a murder mystery with sex thrown in. Some of my favorites subjects. A great book to take to the beach or for a cross-country flight.
Rating: 
Summary: a quick review
Review: There was an episode of MARRIED WITH CHILDREN that made a joke about the "Steven Bochco Hall of Failures," and this book sounds like it'll have an alcove in such a museum. It reads like a catharsis for Bochco about the shark-eat-shark nature of the entertainment industry, told second-person from the POV of a screenwriting agent, with far too much Mamet Dammit-level profanity to be considered hardboiled. You'd think he would have picked something up from the NYPD BLUE technical advisors about law enforcement, but Bochco seems to be more focused on venting about the hand that feeds him.
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