CITY OF MYTHS

Book 8 in the Hollywood’s Garden of Allah novels

by Martin Turnbull

DUE FOR RELEASE IN FEBRUARY 2018

A fellow Hollywood researcher and writer recently moaned to me what a challenge it is to tease fact from fiction in a place built on fabrication. The product of this town – the movies – was born of imagination, and the people who made them – stars, moguls, directors, writers, craftspeople of all kinds – became obscured behind a gauzy curtain of (usually) self-serving fairy tales.

“What is the accurate story?” wasn’t the question that sold tickets, newspapers, and fan magazines, but “What is the most interesting story?” The daughter of a laundress becomes a Boston debutante. A Romanian refugee is now a member of European royalty. A shoeless kid from rural Georgia metamorphoses into the scion of a cotton plantation owner.

People moved to California in order to reinvent themselves in an attempt to leave their often-wretched past behind. And where better to do it in a city whose stories, myths, and legends were created?

I was surprised when my friend expressed his frustration. While I certainly understood it, my reaction was the opposite. What makes this an endlessly fascinating topic to explore is that the truth about how Hollywood movies were made is so hard to know. In real life, it’s difficult to live with “fake news” and revisionist history, but deliberately obscured truths are all part and parcel of the allure of golden-era Hollywood, if you ask me.

For the cover of this book, I wanted to incorporate the symbol that has come to represent the film industry: the Hollywood sign. But I asked my cover designer, Dan Yeager to give us a view of the “H” from the rear. I wanted it to represent the underbelly flipside to all the glamorous portraits, the razzle-dazzle dance numbers, and the sweeping romantic music as the screen fades to black. The tension between what was put on screen at odds with the human cost it took to get it there is something I find endlessly fascinating and is the overarching theme of my novels. I think that the backside of the “H” in the Hollywood sign symbolizes that struggle perfectly—what do you think?

~oOo~

BOOK DESCRIPTION

When you live in a city built on shifting sands of myth, it can be hard to know which way is up.

Kathryn Massey spends her days spreading rumors and keeping secrets. Losing herself one headline at a time has left Kathryn’s personal identity scattered—and dumps her at the narrow end of the bargaining table with the man she trusts the least.

Gwendolyn Brick has simpler aspirations. As a costume designer, her sights are set on glamour, not heights of fame. But her friendship with Marilyn Monroe puts her directly into the crosshairs of studio head, Darryl Zanuck—and he’s someone you don’t say no to.

Marcus Adler is stuck in a much more precarious situation. Exiled in Rome but under the spell of an unexpected romance, he’ll have to learn to say goodbye to everything he’s accomplished in order to give love a chance.

In City of Myths, the road through Hollywood bears sharply to the right as those who dare to play its game can easily become lost in its intoxicating glow.

~oOo~

City of Myths is due for release in FEBRUARY 2018 but you can read CHAPTER ONE now.

~oOo~

Hollywood’s Garden of Allah novels:

• Book 1 – The Garden on Sunset
• Book 2 – The Trouble with Scarlett
• Book 3 – Citizen Hollywood
• Book 4 – Searchlights and Shadows
• Book 5 – Reds in the Beds
• Book 6 – Twisted Boulevard
• Book 7 – Tinseltown Confidential
• Book 8 – City of Myths (due out February 2018)
• Book 9 – Watch this space for future announcements

~oOo~