Frank H. (perryfran) reviewed on 9/8/2017 + 1229 more book reviews

I really enjoyed FRAMES, the first in Estleman's Valentino mysteries. Valentino is a UCLA film archivist or Film Detective who decides to buy an old movie palace in Hollywood called the Oracle. He needed a place to live but also wants to restore the old place. While going through the projection room, he discovers some old film canisters that are labeled "Greed." Can they be the lost full length epic silent film of Erich von Stroheim that originally ran between 8 and 10 hours? Then in the basement, he discovers the walled up skeleton of a decades old murder victim and more film canisters of Greed. But the skeleton complicates matters on whether the film can be kept away from the police who think it may be connected to the possible murder victim in the basement. Valentino and his associates decide that they must try to solve the murder before the police lay claim to the film.

I found this book to be a lot of fun. The characters are well portrayed including not only Valentino but his associate, Broadhead; law student Fanta, and an LAPD medical examiner Harriet who seems to be drawn to Valentino, not to mention the ghost of von Stroheim who wants Valentino to take care of his kindling (child). The book was also filled with film trivia especially about the silent era and other older movies. "Greed" was an adaptation of the novel "McTeague" by Frank Norris which I read quite a few years ago and thought it to be a great realistic classic. I would recommend this one to any film buffs or lovers of movie history and I definitely will be reading more in this series.

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