Amanda Reynolds, The Screenwriter, Boldwood Books, January 2024

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

This title attracted me and, although unattracted to Reynold’s Close to Me in its televised form, suggests that potentially I have found a new source of entertaining psychological thrillers. The Screenwriter has the added attraction of including social commentary together with the staples of this genre, mystery, devious characters and some intriguing plotting. In this novel, scrutiny of the Hollywood world as the MeToo movement has become part of its public discourse, is woven into the plotting and characterisation.

A prologue introduces Blythe Hopper who, upon looking out of her tower in her home in Hampstead, sees a spire of smoke arising from her garden. Headache forgotten along with the insults she has had to endure from a young journalist and mixed reminisces about her marriage, she hastens downstairs, runs through the kitchen where signs of a fight are apparent, is unable to locate keys to the locked back door, finds instead a gun and …

A month later Marnie Wilde arrives to be Blythe’s ghost writer. She is desperate for the work, for personal as well as financial reasons. Both explain her preparedness to suffer the disagreeable behaviour of Blythe and her business manager, Ludo Villander, the unsavoury accommodation to which she is banished from the well-appointed house, the poor-quality food prepared in a dirty kitchen and numerous rules to which she must adhere. However, lest one feels too sorry for Marnie she is also a less than sympathetic character, with her slovenly appearance, propensity to self-sabotage, and her endless consumption of alcohol.

Marnie has recently suffered a setback to her screen writing career and has to return to ghost writing. She is concerned about the situation in which she finds herself, questions the motives of Blythe and Ludo, claims to want to remain abreast of the various shoals that she is encountering in her new role, but only spasmodically works towards this end. She is intrigued by Dom Hopper’s script which he and Blythe were working on as a vehicle for Blythe whose long-ago Oscar has not achieved for her the fame she craves. Dom’s death at Blythe’s hand, destruction of the script for the proposed film and his email to Marnie in which he claims to be pursuing Marnie’s mother’s mysterious disappearance all work to create a multitude of strands to the novel. Marnie’s and Blythe’s characters and the story of their pasts emerge through discussions about the proposed memoir, and the possibility of Marnie completing Blythe’s interpretation of the screen play.

The merging of characters and stories is a clever device, and helps move the novel past the drinking, inedible food, and general seediness that makes up much of the story. Although there is some predictability, Reynolds has established characters that work, competent storylines and has addressed the role and impact of sexual predators in Hollywood. I would read another of Amanda Reynold’s novels.

I have been hooked by all the books I have previously read by Amanda Reynolds and I feel the same about this one. Definitely recommend the book and the authors previous books.

This was great! I was so invested in Marnie’s experiences, and I loved the twists and turns that the story took. I’m always interested in an underdog tale.
The premise is that a down-on-her-luck screenwriter is somehow selected to ghostwrite a memoir for a celebrity who is, shall we say, embroiled in a scandal of epic proportions. Marnie has her own issues, not least of which is that she is a raging alcoholic. She is instructed to live on the grounds of the estate until she gets the material she needs to write the book. The novel has a small amount of characters, but the ones that are featured are so entertaining that it doesn’t matter. Stuff gets crazy in that mansion! I’m excited to read more of Ms. Reynolds’ work.

My thanks to NetGalley and Boldwood Books for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

You can find my review on Goodreads here:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/149111806

I also post on Instagram as books_the_magical_fruit.

Written in 1st person POV, I really enjoyed this book. It was a bit slow at times, but the twists at the end, I didn't see coming at all !! I was so shocked ! I would have sought revenge at the end though haha.

Thanks to Netgalley and Boldwood Books for access to this arc in exchange for my honest review.

A former Hollywood star, now a recluse, who is believed to have murdered her husband. A young writer, who is longing to get out of her own shadow as a ghost writer of celebrity memoirs. Decades apart in age, what is the hidden connection between the them?

One-time movie star Blythe Hopper had long been pushing her screenwriter husband to prepare the screenplay which was to be their comeback. When he finally refused, a furious Blythe was unwilling to accept that decision.

Her husband was right to worry about the lie that they were living in the form of their supposedly enduring and happy marriage. But why did Marnie - who has been approached to write yet another celebrity memoir, this time Blythe's - receive a mysterious email from him around the time of his death?

This is a dramatic and suspenseful story, though the writing style was not entirely to my taste. The book is worth a read for those who want a story about the hidden side of larger-than-life characters, and the lengths they will go to keep those secrets to themselves. It gets 3.5 stars.