A riveting 1920s Hollywood thriller about the making of the most
terrifying silent film ever made, and a deadly search for the single
copy rumored still to exist, from the internationally acclaimed author
of The Devil Aspect.
"A masterful thriller." --Lincoln Child, #1 New York Times
bestselling author
"A guaranteed one-sitting read." --Jeffery Deaver, author of The Bone
Collector and Hunting Time
** "The most sheerly entertaining novel I've raced through in at least a
year." --A.J. Finn, author of The Woman in the Window**
1927: Mary Rourke--a Hollywood studio fixer--is called urgently to the
palatial home of Norma Carlton, one of the most recognizable stars in
American silent film. Norma has been working on the secret film everyone
is openly talking about... a terrifying horror picture called The
Devil's Playground that is rumored to have unleashed a curse on
everyone involved in the production. Mary finds Norma's cold, dead body,
and she wonders for just a moment if these dark rumors could be true.
1967: Paul Conway, a journalist and self-professed film aficionado, is
on the trail of a tantalizing rumor. He has heard that a single copy of
The Devil's Playground--a Holy Grail for film buffs--may exist. He
knows his Hollywood history and he knows the film endured myriad
tragedies and ended up lost to time.
The Devil's Playground is Craig Russell's tour de force, a richly
researched and constructed thriller that weaves through the Golden Age
of Hollywood and reveals a blossoming industry built on secrets,
invented identities, and a desperate pursuit of image. As Mary Rourke
charges headlong through the egos, distractions, and traps that threaten
to take her down with the doomed production, she discovers a truth far
more sinister than she--or we--could have imagined.
