The Jean Harlow Bombshell (A Classic Star Biography Mystery #1)

Author:  Mollie Cox Bryan
Genre:   Mystery

Trade Paperback; Digital Book
ISBN #:  9780738758695
Midnight Ink Publishing
336 Pages
$10.99; $10.44 Amazon
May 8, 2019

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Justine Taylor is a world-famous biographer of Hollywood stars.  She's also Charlotte Donovan's overbearing boss.  So it comes as no surprise to Charlotte when Justine requests an emergency meeting related to her latest in-progress biography.  It is a surprise, though, when Justine up and dies before their urgent discussion can begin.

In the wake of such a tragedy, all Charlotte wants to do is finish the Jean Harlow biography that Justine had started.  Instead, she finds herself in grave danger - stalked both online and in person by a drop-dead Jean Harlow look-alike.  Together with police sergeant Den Brophy, Charlotte uncovers shocking revelations.  But will these revelations be enough to catch the killer?

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Charlotte Donovan is a researcher and executive assistant to a writer who specializes in celebrity biographies, mostly from the Golden Age of Hollywood.  She's currently working on one about Jean Harlow, a 1930's platinum blonde who died tragically at the age of 26.  When Charlotte goes to a local tearoom to meet her employer, Justine Taylor, it's only a short time before Justine dies in front of her.

Now Charlotte has been given the job of finishing the biography, but also cleaning Justine's apartment, and when she finds out Justine was murdered, she decides to find out who killed her and why.  But when potential murderers start coming out of the woodwork, and it's apparent that whoever killed Justine is now after her, the stakes have been raised, and with the help of a handsome police officer and her best friend Kate, Charlotte will have to dig deep to find out the truth...

I wanted to read this book because I am a huge classic movie fan.  So much so, I have hundreds of biographies from stars of the Golden Age, and thousands of classic films from the silent era to the 1960's.  I figured this would be tailor-made for me.  After all, a book about Jean Harlow and a lookalike?  What's not to like?  Well, this book, apparently.

PLEASE DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THE BOOK AS IT CONTAINS SPOILERS!

First off, the author is a writer of cozy mysteries, so you pretty much are thinking you know what to expect.  This book is nothing like any of the others - as an example, there's quite a bit of foul language throughout (not that it bothers me, but I more expect it if I'm reading a thriller, but this is not labeled as such, so I didn't much care for it in this book) and almost all of it is spoken by our protagonist, Charlotte.

Now Charlotte is an unlikable character, and not because of her choice of words, but her entire personality.  First, I should mention she has Lyme Disease, and while it is a terrible thing, it is entirely curable.  While it may take months, or even years, I am told that Lyme Disease is curable, and the symptoms will not return.  So my question is, how did Charlotte contract it; where; and how long has she had it?  We are never told, yet we are to believe that she's suffered from it for years.  If she's still suffering, she would not have Lyme Disease, but rather Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome; and eventually even this is curable.  So that was my first problem (and before you think I'm being cold, I have a sister who has Celiac Disease, so I know how difficult it is to live with a permanent condition; but Lyme is not permanent.)

Then, not to put too fine a line on it, Charlotte is a bit of a slut with Daddy issues.  Her father, a police officer, left when she was a child, so now she sleeps with cops regularly - but she has standards, so the cops have to be 'hot' before she'll screw them.  I guess that makes it alright in her mind.  She does this on such a regular basis that when she meets Sergeant Den Brophy, who's handling the Justine case (we'll get into that later), she thinks he's one of the hot ones, but has made a bet with her friend Kate that she won't have sex for four weeks.  This, however, doesn't stop her from lusting after him every time she looks at him.  It comes to pass that when she goes to meet him she's worried one of her 'past experiences' might be in the bar and make things uncomfortable.  But she still keeps talking with a cop on Tinder.  Riiiggghhtt...

Doesn't she think that if she continues to see this guy that if they ever attend a function together (or even go to a bar) that one of her former conquests might recognize her and inform Den of her little 'peccadilloes'?  I can't see any way this relationship is going to work, any more than if it were Den who had been sleeping around with people she knew.  Also, her mother is a drunk, so she has that to contend with.  Charlotte leads a pretty depressing life, in my opinion.  (As a side note, if Justine was of sound mind, Judith has nothing to contest.  She never visited Justine, and relatives are not under any obligation to leave their estate to other relatives based on the mere fact they are family.  A judge would make quick work of this).

As for Den, the murder occurred in Manhattan.  So why are the homicide detectives allowing a street cop to take the lead on this?  It's not Mayberry where there are only two cops.  In a large city where there's been a murder, he would have passed it on to the homicide department and been out of it.  I know this is true in Manhattan, so this didn't make any sense at all.

Now to the plot of the story:  While the writing was very good, I wasn't happy with the story line.  I get that she wanted to find out who the Harlow lookalike was.  I get that she wanted to find out who killed Justine, and who's after a missing item that belonged to Harlow.  (FYI, Norma Shearer's name is misspelled a few times, for those who want to know more about her but don't know who she is).

What I didn't like is the way the author completely trashed William Powell, a wonderful actor,

nominated three times for academy awards, and by all accounts, very well-liked.  She calls him a 'prick'.  He had an impish grin, dimples, a wonderful laugh, could do comedy and drama equally well, was liked by his costars, a marvelous actor...and his world crashed when Harlow died.  He was so devastated he had to be helped at the funeral.  He didn't work for nearly two years afterward, and was welcomed back with open arms.  (Not to mention he had cancer during this time and was undergoing radical treatment and recovery).  There were reasons he didn't marry Harlow, but there is no dispute that the man loved her deeply.  (Just look at the photo and you'll see).  While Charlotte is enamored of Harlow, it's painfully obvious she hates Powell.

Needless to say, I thought this would be a new cozy series, but alas, it is not.  I also thought the characters would be funny and/or quirky, interesting, intelligent, or even have substance, but they don't.  You can't call Charlotte intelligent when her actions prove otherwise.  The book also has some moral dictates thrown in, though I won't mention them here.  I do, however, dislike the fact when authors tend to throw in their own personal and/or political views - we're here to be entertained, not preached to.  I also didn't understand why the owner of the talent agency hated cops.  Is he hiring criminals?  Because it didn't make any sense otherwise why he wouldn't talk to Brophy, and neither would any of the employees.  The last I heard, being a female impersonator wasn't against the law.

All in all, when the ending comes and the murderer was revealed, it wasn't really a surprise as all the clues were leading up to it.  I felt that the book was pretty depressing, and it had no memorable characters.  While I would have loved a book that introduced people to the stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, this one didn't meet my expectations.  Two stars for the writing, but I won't be reading any more in the series.  Maybe I was expecting more, but personally, I feel it is a disservice to classic Hollywood stars. Sorry.

https://www.amazon.com/Harlow-Bombshell-Classic-Biography-Mystery/dp/0738758698/ref=

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2811695070

More on Mollie Cox Bryan's Books:  https://www.fantasticfiction.com/b/mollie-cox-bryan/