I Wake Up Screaming (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

Rating:
Summary: There are two versions ...
Review: Fischer wrote this first set in Hollywood and then re-wrote it (after it had been filmed) set in the 50s.

An engaging, quick read -- noir-lite.

Rating:
Summary: A noir mystery in Hollywood
Review: Steve Fisher's "I Wake Up Screaming" is a noir murder mystery set against the backdrop of Hollywood of the 1940s (though my copy of the book places the novel in the '50s). With Fisher's screenwriting experience, the verisimilitude of the Los Angeles and Hollywood setting is never in doubt. Peg (the male narrator) falls for Vicky Lynn, a bombshell secretary. Before long, he has enlisted the help of some friends to sponsor Vicky as they try to make her into a movie star. Soon after that, she is killed.

Police initially suspect Peg, but they soon clear him--except for one cop, a determined man named Ed Cornell, who assures Peg that he always gets his man and is never wrong. While Peg tries to get about the business of writing movies, Cornell is stalking him, trying to wear down the writer psychologically.

"I Wake Up Screaming" is a moderately gritty noir mystery written in a fast-paced, conversational style. The flavor is distinctly that of an era long past, and the novel should appeal to those who like that sort of atmosphere.

Rating:
Summary: A noir mystery in Hollywood
Review: Steve Fisher's "I Wake Up Screaming" is a noir murder mystery set against the backdrop of Hollywood of the 1940s (though my copy of the book places the novel in the '50s). With Fisher's screenwriting experience, the verisimilitude of the Los Angeles and Hollywood setting is never in doubt. Peg (the male narrator) falls for Vicky Lynn, a bombshell secretary. Before long, he has enlisted the help of some friends to sponsor Vicky as they try to make her into a movie star. Soon after that, she is killed.

Police initially suspect Peg, but they soon clear him--except for one cop, a determined man named Ed Cornell, who assures Peg that he always gets his man and is never wrong. While Peg tries to get about the business of writing movies, Cornell is stalking him, trying to wear down the writer psychologically.

"I Wake Up Screaming" is a moderately gritty noir mystery written in a fast-paced, conversational style. The flavor is distinctly that of an era long past, and the novel should appeal to those who like that sort of atmosphere.