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From the acclaimed co-creator of Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, and NYPD Blue, Death by Hollywood is a suspenseful, shocking, and darkly comic crime novel about a screenwriter, a billionaire's wife, a murder, and, of course, a cop.

"There used to be a writer by the name of Merle Miller, who wrote that people in Hollywood are always touching you--not because they like you, but because they want to see how soft you are before they eat you alive."
So begins this seductive and surprising novel by two-time Edgar Award–winning writer Steven Bochco, in which a down-on-his-luck screenwriter named Bobby Newman tries to turn a brutal murder into his next movie payday.

One day, while spying on his Hollywood Hills neighbors through his $4,000 Bushnell XR90 electronic telescope, Bobby sees a beautiful socialite making love to a handsome Latin actor named Ramon. When their pillow talk takes a turn for the ugly, Bobby watches in horror as the woman bludgeons her lover to death with his own acting trophy. Deciding to write about it instead of reporting it to the cops, Bobby insinuates himself into Detective Dennis Farentino’s murder investigation, forging an unusual friendship with the cop that turns out to be more complex than either of them had bargained for. Before long, Bobby has dragged the detective, his estranged wife, his lover, and his agent into a Hollywood fun-house hall of mirrors, where only the most manipulative player will survive.

Savvy, funny, sexy, and streetwise, Death by Hollywood is the tale Steven Bochco couldn't tell on television. It is the work of an ingenious storyteller, certain to enthrall readers from beginning to end.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (63)

Great read with a twist...but rated R for language
This book was a great easy read. I read it in a day and the plot was great. Very twisty about a man who witnesses a murder and it just unravels from there. However, the F word was used a ton. So this should be an R rated book.

A Good Murder Equals a Better Screenplay
Lately Screenwriter Bobby Newman's fingers spend more time wrapped around a bottle then they do tapping on a keyboard. He's got writer's block, but his eyes aren't blocked and they spend the evenings peeping through his high-powered telescope, spying on his neighbors. And one evening Bobby sees the wife of a Hollywood millionaire smack her Latin lover with an acting trophy, killing him.

He hustles over to the murder scene, finds the body. He also finds that the Latin Lover made videos of his sexual conquests and graded them A to F. And, to his shock, he sees that his wife Vee is a B+. He takes the tape, along with the tape of the murder.

He gets an idea to solve his little writer's block problem. He decides to do a screenplay about the murder. He gets close to both the murderer, and the detective in charge of the case n order to get inside the minds of the future protagonists of his screenplay.

The story is told by Bobby's cynical agent, Eddie Jelko who is recounting the story as Bobby has told it to him. This is a witty story told by a Hollywood insider about Hollywood, it's goings on real and imagined. The people may not exactly be the types you'd want to live next door to, but they are entertaining.

Murder, Hollywood Style
There is just something about a book written by a Hollywood insider that grabs your attention. You pick it up at your local bookstore or buy it from Amazon.com (preferably as a discounted paperback), hoping it will live up to the promise of the words on the back cover. That they almost never do, that they are almost always trash, is a sad fact of life.

But sometimes you can be surprised. Sometimes those insiders really know their stuff and sometimes they can really churn out a story. And every now and then they tickle your fancy as you try and keep up with unforgetable characters who romp through a twisting and turning plot.

I found myself laughing aloud while I read along with Bochco's fictional agent Eddie Jelko as he narrated this book about kinky and kooky characters who people the Hollywood scene.

Jelko tells us about his client, screenwriter Bobby Newman, whose career is on a fast track to nowhere. One fateful night he's busy checking out his neighbors with a high powered telescope when he spies a couple in the throws of passion, however when the love makeing is finished, they fight and murder is done.

Even a normal, telescope-looking, peeping tom pervert would go to the cops, but not our quirky hero, because he sees opportunitiy knocking. Here is potential for a screenplay that will put Bobby back on the top of his game. He gets as close to the lady killer as one can possibly get and he gets involved with the detective investigating the case, all in the name of research for his screenplay.

This five star book gives us, actors and agents, screenwriters and their unfaithful wives, cops and killers, and it delivers them all to us Hollywood style.

I don't exactly know how to describe the way Bochco writes, other than to say that if you could cross breed the styles of Carl Hiaasen, Joseph Wambaugh and Elmore Leonord, you'd come close to Bochco's tone of voice. If you want to get a glimpse into a glimmering, glitzy, sometimes tawdry world and laugh while the author takes you along for his ride, I would highly recommend, "Death by Hollywood."

Readable, but not fantastic
Bocho writes with a great voice that has an almost noir feeling to it.Unfortunately, he didn't really have the story to go with it.Flat characters and an entirely unoriginal tale hamper a fun narrative style.I was expecting better from the creator of so many wonderful television dramas.Next time around, maybe?

Recommended for Mature Audiences
Although I would agree with many of the negative comments, this is nonetheless a fun read. Be prepared for an over-the-top, sex-heavy account of Hollywood goings on.

If the characters had been "fleshed out" and some of the tangents (although enlightening) had been relegated to the cutting bin, it would have improved this read. Even so, I got the book at the dollar store and it was definitely worth the money! ... Read more

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This is the first full-length study of the life and works of Franz FÜhmann (1922-1984) to be published in English.It provides a complete reassessment of his importance as a prose-writer, informed by the extensive corpus of FÜhmann's writing which has only appeared posthumously or is now accessible in the archives of the Akademie der KÜnste in East Berlin.
Dennis Tate argues that, from the middle 1950s onwards, FÜhmann's prose writing is both stylistically innovative and committed to the authentic representation of his experience, thereby challenging the conventional wisdom that little writing of international significance could be produced in the ideological context of the GDR until Honecker introduced his `no taboos' cultural policy in 1971.FÜhmann's widely praised later texts (ranging from the autobiographical Zweiundzwanzig Tage oder Die HÄlfte des Lebens and Vor FeuerschlÜnden to mythical and satirical short stories such as `Marsyas' and `Drei nackte MÄnner') can now be seen as the culmination of an impressive creative development rather than as the result of a late conversion to literary truthfulness.
The volume will be of interest to students and teachers of post-1945 German literature as well as to general readers aware of the vitality of Central European culture throughout the period of East-West ideological division.
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After a novel combustion process has been developed inthe lab or on a pilot plant, it is crucial to safeguard properfunctioning in the commercial installation.With increasing size of industrial combustors, environmentalconcerns and fuel flexibility, scale-up is more important thanever before. This book closes a gap in the literature on scale-upin combustion. It complements existing books on general scaleupprinciples by providing thte reader with specific informationthat is relevant to scale-up in combustion.What is covered in this book:- Scale-up principles- The concept of chemical similarity- Scale-up for biomass combustion- Scale-up of fluidized bed combustion- Scale-up of rotary kilns- Development of an alternative ignition systemThis book is addressed at scientists, engineers and practitionersin the field of combustion, particularly those who are interestedin process development and process optimization of combustionon a large scale. ... Read more

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This survey examines the work of 150 artists who have either lived or worked in Chicago, and ranges from painting, sculpture, photography and drawing to film, video and performance art. Essays by a range of art critics and historians consider the institutions, movements, attitudes and ideas that have shaped Chicago over the past 50 years, while over 170 colour reproductions are set amid a running timeline of historical events in both Chicago and beyond. ... Read more

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Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Chapters: Edward Teller, Joseph Petzval, Theodore Von Kármán, Kálmán Tihanyi, Dennis Gabor, Ányos Jedlik, László Bíró, Franz Gebauer, Wolfgang Von Kempelen, Csaba Horváth, Ernő Rubik, Zoltán Lajos Bay, Egon Orowan, Béla Barényi, Albert Fonó, Ferenc Anisits, Pál Selényi, Ottó Bláthy, József Galamb, János Csonka, Orban, Imre Bródy, Emánuel Moór, Jozef Karol Hell, László Heller, Donát Bánki, Károly Zipernowsky, György Szigeti, Tivadar Millner, Ernő Winter, Miksa Déri, János Irinyi, George Clifford Sziklai. Source: Wikipedia. Free updates online. Not illustrated. Excerpt: Edward Teller (January 15, 1908 September 9, 2003) was a Hungarian-born American theoretical physicist, known colloquially as "the father of the hydrogen bomb," even though he did not care for the title. Teller emigrated to the United States in the 1930s, and was an early member of the Manhattan Project charged with developing the first atomic bombs. During this time he made a serious push to develop the first fusion-based weapons as well, but these were deferred until after World War II. After his controversial testimony in the security clearance hearing of his former Los Alamos colleague Robert Oppenheimer, Teller was ostracized by much of the scientific community. He continued to find support from the U.S. government and military research establishment, particularly for his advocacy for nuclear energy development, a strong nuclear arsenal, and a vigorous nuclear testing program. He was a co-founder of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), and was both its director and associate director for many years. In his later years he became especially known for his advocacy of controversial technological solutions to both military and civilian problems, including a plan to excavate an artificial harbor in Alaska using thermo...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=37782 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from The Tax Adviser, published by American Institute of CPA's on December 1, 1997. The length of the article is 2026 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the supplier: The Tax Court erred in its 1997 Wal-Mart Stores memo when it gave priority to materiality language in its interpretation of 'best accounting practice' in relation to an unqualified audit opinion. The court misinterpreted professional auditing standards by making independently issued unqualified audit opinions evidence of both best accounting practices and clear reflections of income. The interpretation can result in an unwarranted expansion of legal tax practices and should be discarded on appeal.

Citation Details
Title: Tax Court introduces financial statement materiality into the tax law.
Author: Dennis J. Gaffney
Publication: The Tax Adviser (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 1, 1997
Publisher: American Institute of CPA's
Volume: 28Issue: n12Page: 750(4)

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