VAMP – A Valentino Mystery
By Loren D. Estleman
Forge Books
230 pgs
Valentino is a film archivist who works for UCLA in Los Angeles and at times does a little detecting work on the side. The character and series are both well known by mystery fans, and after reading this entry, we can easily understand why. Valentino and his supporting cast of characters, while at times eccentric, are wonderfully charming and fun to hang with.
In this particular outing, Valentino is approached by an old set designer friend who is being blackmailed. The fellow, a fugitive from a ages old crime in Nebraska, has been posing as a Russian émigré in his new Hollywood career. Alas, the past has supposedly caught up with him and now someone is threatening to reveal his true identity to the authorities.
At the same time all this is going down, Valentino is approached by a retired cop from the Midwest named Jasper Grote claiming to possess two reels from the lost silent film Cleopatra starring Hollywood’s first femme fatale, the legendary Theda Bara. When the hayseed copper arrives and proves to be Nebraskan, the coincidence with Valentino’s threatened associate is far too implausible. So, what’s the connection between the two stories and is Grote really who he says he is?
If you like old movies and stories about the people who made them, Vamp is an enjoyable romp of a tale told by a master storyteller.
