I loved The Long Silence by Irish writer Gerard O'Donovan, and now his LA private detective Tom Collins returns, for another scandal-filled affair among the great and not-so-good in 1920s Hollywood. The Doom List refers to the campaign by the garrulous and ambitious Republican politician who set out to 'clean up' what he saw as the Sodom and Gomorrah of Tinsel Town. He is best remembered for the 1930 Motion Picture Production Code, informally referred to as the Hays Code, which spelled out a set of industry moral guidelines for the self-censorship of content in Hollywood cinema.

Former city cop Collins has earned a reputation among movie producers and stars as a man who gets things done, but in a discreet way, and here he becomes involved in getting to the bottom of a nasty blackmail case involving one of Hollywood's rising stars. José Ramón Gil Samaniego is a young man who was to become better know as Ramon Novarro, star of many hit movies, and an heir to the throne of screen heart-throb vacated by Rudolf Valentino after his untimely death. O'Donovan peoples his story with actual real life characters as far as possible, and it is a winning formula. Samaniego is in trouble because there are intimate photographs of him taken a notorious club for homosexuals. Both he and his studio bosses are desperate that these photos and the negatives are found and destroyed.

There is another case occupying Tom's mind and time. An old buddy from his police days, Thad Sullivan is in big trouble. Already feeling the heat from his senior officers because he refuses to look the other way when they accept backhanders and pervert the course of justice, he now faces another challenge, Some boys exploring a canyon in the Hollywood hills have discovered the corpse of a man, dried out by the fierce heat and unrecognisable. In his pocket, however, is a piece of paper with Thad's name and police number. Can Tom save his friend's career?

This is a thoroughly entertaining and intriguing glimpse into the murky world of the early Hollywood stars away from the popping of camera flash bulbs and hyped newspaper articles. Tom Collins is an old fashioned hero - incorruptible and determined. The Doom List is published by Severn House, and is out now.

Private Eye High Jinks......
The second Tom Collins mystery set in 1920’s Hollywood continues the adventures of private eye, Tom, as he becomes embroiled in all manner of distasteful deeds, blackmail and the love lives of the rich and famous. Glitz, glamour, sleaze and a murder - it’s all here, high jinks with Tom as he desperately attempts to stay on the right side of the legal system.

I usually don’t like stories set in Hollywood. And I usually don’t like historical fiction about real famous people. Yet, this mystery novel is set at the dawn of the Hollywood industry and it involves a lot of famous people (mostly actors) and I loved it.

I don’t know how many real facts are in this book. There’s a note at the end where the author tells of a few true events included in the story, all very cursory. But everything feels real to me. Certainly credible.
The plot is complex – it involves three different mysteries that eventually come together – but it’s generally easy to follow because it is so solid and logical.
There’s nothing extravagant about these mysteries. They sound very plausible, even the ones involving the stars. And it’s quite remarkable because a lot of politics is involved: the city politics, the Hollywood showbusiness politics, the underworld politics. Sometimes, this kind of things end up sounding far-fetched, but not here.
The setting is really very good.

And so are the characters, though I may find the stars’ personalities a bit over the top. But maybe that’s the way they really were. Who knows? Of most of them, I knew little more than the names.
The everyday people instead is incredibly relatable.
Tom Collins, the protagonist, is a great character. He is a former New York cop who removed to Hollywood when the film industry moved there and worked for one of the big studios in the security for a while. I love his dispassionate outlook on life, the way his mind works quiet and steady. I get a sense that he has seen a lot and there’s very little that can rattle him. And still, he is a very compassionate man, and there’s a feeling that that compassion also comes from his work. He can pin down a person in the bat of an eye, but he will also often sympathise with their sorrows and even their more trivial problems.
And I like that he’s not afraid of taking chances, though he does so only when it is utterly necessary, which is, in my opinion, a great narrative trait that also feels very realistic.
The dialogues are something special. They are all crisp, natural-sounding and still to the point. It’s a pleasure to hear these characters talk.

There’s a great noir feel to the story. Hollywood does help there. The city comes off the page so vividly that it’s easy to visualise the places and the people. It helped ground myself in the story, as did the historical details, the reconstruction of everyday life, which is always what I enjoy the most in historical fiction.

All in all, it’s a brilliant story, with a fantastic pace that makes it very very hard to put the book down for the night. So I’ll forgive an ending that is a bit less clean than the rest of the story, but it’s still satisfying.

An excellent historical mystery that I really enjoyed. It's gripping, entertaining and well researched.
It's a bit slow at times but I liked the well crafted plot, the characters and the vivid historical background.
The mystery is solid, full of twists and turns, and it kept me guessing.
It's recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

From the outset, I struggled to get into The Doom List. Nothing particularly grabbed me about the prose, which isn't to say that it's bad - just that it's not as stylised as one might expect from a 1920s set mystery. The descriptions of character's movements at times felt quite excessive, almost as if their blocking were being described for a scene in a play. The settings themselves were well realised, but here the description felt excessive too, often coming across as a slavish adherence to accurately depicting the period which didn't read all that naturally.

I also found myself quite frustrated by some of the narrative decisions taken throughout. On several occasions, it felt like something exciting had happened but main character Tom only heard it about it after the fact, leading to me feeling like I'd missed out on something. Tom also repeatedly finds out a vital piece of information which we aren't privy to, before revealing it a few pages later anyway, which left me feeling like I was playing catch-up rather than unravelling the mystery along with him. On top of this, many of the supporting characters came across as much more interesting than Tom himself, who seems to spend much of his time grinning or laughing in response to everything that's said to him. He comes across as far too nice a character, even repeatedly saying that he doesn't take on rough jobs, which consequently means this is probably the most warm and fuzzy take on prohibition-era America that I've ever experienced. Especially given its movie studio locales, it comes across as a rather toothless L.A. Confidential.

There were also quite a lot of references to the preceding book, which I wasn't expecting to be as much of an issue as it was. The summarised version of the events of the last book again made me feel like I had missed out on something more exciting than what I was reading, as well as being quite heavy on exposition. This wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been for the fact that by the end of this book, there were still plot threads left dangling, meaning the ending was wholly unsatisfying and left me feeling like I'd been treading water by its conclusion. The plot itself is not without its twists and turns, but these are mostly conveyed through long conversations, with not much excitement to change the pace. The stakes felt very low, and the much touted "Doom List" itself wasn't nearly the looming spectre that I'd hoped for. Whilst I'm aware that this is essentially historical fiction, featuring several real-life movie stars and executives, it felt like more liberties could have been taken to make things a little more exciting.

The Doom List plodded more than I would have expected it to, and seemed to play it very safe overall. Whilst it's far from the worst book I've read recently, it isn't especially memorable either, and left me quite unsatisfied with its overly cosy mystery.

I really enjoyed this second trip into old Hollywood - silents films are still the rage, talkies are barely on the scene, actors and actresses were glamourous, scandalous, mysterious and sometimes murderous. The weaving of some of these famous Hollywood folk into the story gives it a bit more of an edge, and O'Donovan again uses events from this time as a backdrop.

Whilst it is not necessary to have read the first in this series, I would recommend that you do as there are references to previous events in this new outing - events which have never quite been closed.

In Tom Collins, ex-cop, ex-studio fixer, now private inquiry agent, O'Donovan gives us a character straight from the pages of the classic noir playbook - right up their with Spade, Hammer or Marlowe. I enjoyed the style of storytelling, which provided enough plot twists and turns and diversions to keep the reader firmly planted on the edge of their seat. You get a true sense of what it was like back in the early days of Hollywood and Los Angeles.

Again, looking forward to the next instalment.

fuller review here @ Melisende's Library

I was impressed at the research to portray 1920s Los Angeles and also interweave into the story real people from that era. Film Directors, Film Actors and Actresses. The Doom list was a list of people who were deemed to bring Hollywood into disrepute. It could ruin careers and lives.
It is this worry that makes Rex Ingram the famous Movie Director contact private investigator Tom Collins and ask for his discreet help. Tom lives with his lover Mrs Fay Parker. Actress, Singer and Owner of the Oasis Night Club. Although still married it is one of convenience.
Tom ends up with two assignments, both extremely difficult. Can he ensure that Will. H. Hays the self styled Movie Czar doesn't add to his Doom list? Tom's position is made more precarious as his friend Detective Thad Sullivan is in trouble, concerning something they were both involved in previously. He also needs to keep ahead of local journalists eager for gossip and scoops.
Very enjoyable a well recommended read. I look forward to more from Tom and Fay. Can Tom keep his ambitious Secretary Mae from taking over his Business!? Meanwhile I'll read the previous book "The long silence" from this Irish author and journalist. I will review now on Amazon.

1922 Will H Hays, 'movie czar' in on his way to Hollywood, to clean it up of its undesirables. Which brings a problem to actress Barbara La Marr (pregnant and not currently married), and upcoming actor Ramon Samaniegos, because of his close friendship with a Gianni.
When a body is discovered in the desert Ramon is convinced that it is Gianni, who disappeared some weeks ago. This unnamed body is also of concern to Detective Thad Sullivan and p.i. Tom Collins, as they might know who it is, and be implicated in the death. Collins is employed by La Marr and Ramon to help with their problems, and hopefully for them not to be exposed so that their careers are ruined by ending up on Hays' 'Doom List'.
An enjoyable well-written historical mystery covering sleaze, corruption and sexual scandals, at city hall, the police or at the film industry.

The director loved making movies. He can tell when he has a good one and that's the one he's working on now. Then he learns the new head of the department expects perfect behavior from the stars and wants all the movies clean. If he sees any transgressions he adds them to his "Doom List" and they will be fired...

Severn House and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It will be published June 2nd.

The director hires a private investigator to protect his leading lady from trouble. The PI finds all kinds of things that he has to watch for. The newspapers are all looking for dirt. The cops aren't clean. And her co-star has lost his lover and wants to find him.

These characters are better at weaving a web than a spider. The PI keeps following the threads trying to keep everyone safe. That's no small feat.

You learn about the old movie world and feel sorry for those who face a loss. It's a long busy tale that will keep you reading...

This will be a must read for all who are interested in the US film industry in the early 1920s and those who like their murder mystery reading full of real characters.

Unfortunately I did not take to the author's style and found it rather heavy-going, so it was a tad disappointing for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Severn House for the digital review copy.

Unfortunately this book did not live up my expectations from the blurb.
It was a dry read and did not grab me at all.

I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.

Ex Los Angeles cop turned private eye Tom Collins has two blackmail cases dumped in his lap, both involving Hollywood film actors. Tom has been hired by Rex Ingram, Hollywood's young hotshot director, to protect the reputation of his latest film's leading lady, Barbara La Marr, a beautiful woman with a risque sex life. Ingram's request comes just as newly-appointed 'movie czar' William H. Hays arrives in Los Angeles on a mission to clean up Hollywood. Hays is compiling a list of "undesirables" - actors, directors and others whom he plans to blacklist.
It's nicknamed "The Doom List" and Tom's latest clients may soon be on it.
As his investigative work begins, he's asked to help out another actor - Ramon, a young Mexican just setting out in his career but destined to be as big a star as Rudolf Valentino. Problems start to mount as both Barbara and Ramon haven't been completely honest with him. To make matters worse, political corruption is rife in Los Angeles and it's the same story in the city's police department, where detectives and uniformed officers are on the take.
And to top it all, in the Baldwin Hills, to the south of the city, a badly decomposed body has been found which could link Tom and his former LAPD detective colleague Thad to a murder.
In a fast moving plot packed with numerous twists and turns, we follow Tom Collins from film studio to bordello, and from all-night movie star parties to sleazy downtown bars, both trying to find ways around the Prohibition era's no alcohol laws. Author Gerard O' Donovan easily captures the atmosphere of Los Angeles in the scorching summer heat of 1922. The Hollywood actors and Los Angeles gangsters seem larger than life as is the sleaze of Hollywood's worst neighbourhoods and world weary cynicism of the city's policemen and its hard-nosed newspaper reporters.
The 2nd in this historical mystery series has it all - sexual scandal, blackmail, corruption and simmering violence, all wrapped up in the glitz and glamour of Roaring Twenties Hollywood. Amidst it all there's straight talking private eye Tom Collins, always trying to stay on the right side of the law.

My thanks to the publishers Severn House and to NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.