Windhall

Investigative reporter Max Hailey has been fascinated with the Hollywood mystery at Windhall Estate for as long as he can remember. In 1948, screen-star Eleanor Hayes was found stabbed in Windhall's rose garden by the estate's film-director owner, Theo Langley. After a headline-grabbing trial ended in his acquittal, Langley left L.A., abandoning the estate. Now, an apparent copycat murder near Windhall brings the estate back under public scrutiny, and Langley suddenly reappears. Max knows that this story is what his magazine, The Lens, needs to hold creditors at bay, but he can't convince his editor that anyone still cares about Eleanor's murder. Langley's lawyer won't let Max get anywhere near Langley, but when philanthropist Heather Engel-Feeney, descendant of one of Langley's producers, offers Max access to Langley's old journals, he puts aside his ethical concerns and agrees to give Heather the inside track on his investigation. Max soon discovers that too many key players have a stake in hiding the truth and that Langley's unreleased final film, The Last Train to Avalon, holds the key to Eleanor's murder and to a #MeToo exposé of Old Hollywood. Barry parallels the cutthroat natures of journalism and film, skillfully blending a nuanced millennial perspective with noir shadings and a haunted-house atmosphere.

The scandalous 1948 murder of 26-year-old actor Eleanor Hayes at Windhall, the home of legendary film director Theodore Bates, propels Barry's corker of a debut. At the time, Bates was charged with Hayes's murder. He disappeared after being acquitted of the crime, which remains unsolved. In the present, investigative journalist Max Hailey, who writes for the Los Angeles Lens, reopens the case to discover who really killed Hayes and also to uncover Bates's whereabouts, if he's still alive. Time and again the obsessive Hailey breaks into now abandoned Windhall in search of evidence that reinforces his suspicions. Missing journals belonging to Bates he uncovers reveal much about Hayes and her part in the director's final, long-lost film, Last Train to Avalon. After two copycat murders take place at Windhall, Hailey's editor at the Lens wants to kill his Windhall story, thinking it folly, though sightings of an elderly Bates in Hollywood keep Hailey on the man's trail. The discovery of Last Train to Avalon leads to a shocking denouement. Vibrant characters match the intricate plot. This thrilling mystery is essential reading for fans of Hollywood's golden age. Agent: Annie Bomke, Annie Bomke Literary. (Mar.)