The Hollywood’s Garden of Allah novels are a series of historical fiction set during the golden age of Hollywood – 1927 to 1959 – in and around the real-life Garden of Allah Hotel on Sunset Boulevard.
- 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”
- Book 9 – “Closing Credits”
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ALSO BY MARTIN TURNBULL
Chasing Salomé – a novel of 1920s Hollywood
The Heart of the Lion – a novel of Irving Thalberg’s Hollywood
THE HOLLYWOOD HOME FRONT TRILOGY
A trio of novels set in and around World War II Hollywood
Book 1 – All the Gin Joints
Book 2 – Thank Your Lucky Stars
Book 3 – You Must Remember This
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Book 1 – “The Garden on Sunset”
It’s January 1927 – Hollywood doesn’t know it yet but talking pictures are about to change everything. The Garden of Allah Hotel & Villas on Sunset Boulevard–once home to Hollywood’s highest paid actress, the exotic Alla Nazimova–opens its doors. Marcus Adler, Kathryn Massey and Gwendolyn Brick check in as strangers but soon become friends as they dog-paddle together against a tidal wave of casting couches, bootleggers, Zeppelins, gambling boats, William Randolph Hearst, the Long Beach earthquake, starlets, harlots, Harlows and Garbos.
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Book 2 – “The Trouble With Scarlett”
In 1936, Gone with the Wind is released by first-time author Margaret Mitchell and becomes an international sensation. Everyone in Hollywood knows that Civil War pictures don’t make a dime but renegade movie producer David O. Selznick snaps up the movie rights and suddenly the whole country is obsessed with answering just one question: Who will win the role of Scarlett O’Hara?
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Book 3 – “Citizen Hollywood”
It’s 1939 – Orson Welles, the enfant terrible of New York, is coming to Hollywood to make his first movie. Tinsel City is agog! Can he even direct a movie? What will it be about? Will he scandalize the West Coast the way he’s shocked the East Coast? And, more importantly, who will he bed first and does he kiss-and-tell? When William Randolph Hearst realizes Citizen Kane is based on him, he won’t be happy—and when Hearst isn’t happy, nobody’s safe. Marcus, Kathryn, and Gwendolyn need to go for broke, and the clock is ticking.
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The first three novels are available in one ebook.
All links available on TRILOGY #1
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Book 4 – “Searchlights and Shadows”
The dark days of Pearl Harbor loom over Los Angeles, and posters warn Hollywoodites that loose lips sink ships. MGM screenwriter, Marcus Adler, needs to come up with a sure-fire hit. Gwendolyn Brick dreams of opening her own dress store, but it threatens to drag her back into the orbit of Bugsy Siegel. Columnist, Kathryn Massey survival depend on a place nobody’s heard of: Las Vegas.
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Book 5 – “Reds in the Beds”
As World War II ends, a new boogieman emerges: the Red Menace, and the House un-American Activities Committee prepares to grill the brightest stars in town. MGM writing department head Marcus Adler needs to keep his reputation beyond reproach. Unfortunately in Hollywood, nobody’s past is spotless. Gossip columnist Kathryn Massey may have to take on J. Edgar Hoover himself to shed her FBI informer reputation. And from behind the perfume counter at Bullocks Wilshire, Gwendolyn Brick makes a shocking discovery that could revive her dream and change multiple lives for good. In postwar Hollywood, there are reds in the beds, the sharks are circling, and it’s feeding time.
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Book 6 – “Twisted Boulevard”
When the Red Scare ends, paranoia lingers. Can Tinseltown recover to take on television? When ousted screenwriter Marcus Adler hatches a plan to start over with a disgraced movie star, a Hollywood censor reminds him that the misdeeds of the past aren’t soon forgotten. Hollywood Reporter columnist Kathryn Massey is dealing with a hot new rival when she glimpses a haunting sight on the set of Sunset Boulevard. Gwendolyn Brick thought her new store would be a hit, but when LA’s most notorious madam threatens it, she’ll need a Hollywood-style miracle to keep her Chez Gwendolyn alive.
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The second three novels are available in one ebook.
All links available on TRILOGY #2
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Book 7 – “Tinseltown Confidential”
As America embraces the 1950s, that brash upstart called television is poaching Hollywood’s turf, inch by inch. If the studios don’t do something drastic, they may lose the battle. The specter of Joseph McCarthy forces exiled screenwriter Marcus Adler to fight for a final chance to clear his name. Hollywood Reporter Kathryn Massey knows a secret that might take down the rise of a charismatic figure out to intimidate the film industry. When scandal rag Confidential arrives on the Hollywood scene, Gwendolyn Brick figures she’s got nothing to hide…until she does.
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Book 8 – “City of Myths”
Losing herself one headline at a time has dumped Kathryn Massey at the bargaining table with the man she trusts the least. Now that Gwendolyn Brick is a costumer at 20th Century-Fox, she finds that her friendship with Marilyn Monroe puts her into the crosshairs of Darryl Zanuck. Exiled in Rome but under the spell of romance, Marcus Adler must learn to say goodbye in order to give love a chance.
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Book 9 – “Closing Credits”
When a mysterious list starts circulating, columnist Kathryn Massey finds her life under a public magnifying glass. Beset by writer’s block, screenwriter Marcus Adler finds an abandoned box in the basement of the Garden of Allah. Its contents could rejuvenate his career but cost him his reputation. Gwendolyn Brick stumbles into a blossoming television industry. Although conflicted by new opportunities, she teams up with Lucille Ball to join the rapid march of progress.
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The third three novels are available in one ebook:
All links are available on TRILOGY #3
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“Chasing Salomé – a novel of 1920s Hollywood”
Hollywood, 1920
Alla Nazimova has reached the pinnacle of success. She is the highest-paid actress in town, with a luxurious estate, the respect of her peers, adoration of her fans, and a series of lovers that has included the first wife of her protégé, Rudolph Valentino. But reaching the top is one thing. Staying there is an entirely different matter. Nazimova dreams of producing a motion picture of Oscar Wilde’s infamous “Salomé.” It will be a new form of moviemaking: the world’s first art film. But will it be enough to turn her fortunes around? Or will Hollywood cut her out of the picture?
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“The Heart of the Lion – a novel of Irving Thalberg’s Hollywood”
Hollywood in the 1920s: the motion picture industry is booming, and Irving Thalberg knows it takes more than guts and gumption to create screen magic that will live forever. He’s climbed all the way to head of production at newly merged Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and is determined to transform Leo the Lion into an icon of the most successful studio in town. The harder he works, the higher he soars. But at what cost? The more he achieves, the closer he risks flying into oblivion. A frail and faulty heart shudders inside this chest that blazes with ambition.
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“All the Gin Joints – a novel of World War II Hollywood”
Book 1 in the Hollywood Home Front trilogy
Luke Valenti has never fit into his swaggering family of overbearing loudmouths. Even worse, the world is at war again and Uncle Sam has stamped his draft notice “4-F” — the ultimate rejection — because of a rare eye condition that has left Luke unable to see colors. So instead, he dreams of escaping Brooklyn for the beaches of Montauk. That is, until a stolen prop from The Maltese Falcon pitches him down a reluctant path to Hollywood. Luke is tasked with returning it to Warner Brothers, where Humphrey Bogart is about to embark on the movie that will launch his career into the stratosphere: Casablanca.
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“Thank Your Lucky Stars” – a novel of World War II Hollywood”
Book 2 in the Hollywood Home Front trilogy
After waving her sweetheart, Luke, off to war, Nell Davenport encounters an unexpected entanglement that will change Hollywood forever.
With combat raging across Europe and the Pacific, jobs of all kinds are now open to women on the home front. Nell sets her sights on the publicity department of the Warner Bros. movie studios as she develops a surprising bond with star Humphrey Bogart. But when a captivating 19-year-old is cast opposite Bogie in To Have and Have Not, the newcomer’s arrival threatens to alter the course of Nell’s blossoming friendship.
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“You Must Remember This” – a novel of World War II Hollywood”
Book 3 in the Hollywood Home Front trilogy
As World War II draws to a close, Luke Valenti returns to Los Angeles, eager to be reunited with his love. But the Navy has other plans, thrusting Luke into the spotlight and putting a target on his back. Meanwhile, Nell Davenport finds success as a rising songwriter, unaware that her newfound fame may have dangerous consequences. In a world forever changed by war, can Luke and Nell navigate their way to a happy ending, or will their pasts come back to haunt them?
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