Night Night, Sleep Tight by Hallie Ephron is a riveting tale of domestic noir. Publisher: William Morrow, March 2015
From the award-winning author of There Was an Old Woman comes a riveting tale of domestic noir, infused with old Hollywood folklore and glamour, set in a town rife with egotism and backstabbing and where fame and infamy are often interchangeable.
Los Angeles 1985: Deirdre Unger makes the drive from San Diego to Beverly Hills to help her screenwriter father put his dilapidated house on the market. She is expecting to deal with his usual kvetching and dark moods, but she gets a lot more than she expected. . .In a cruel Sunset Boulevard-ian twist, Deirdre arrives home to find her father face down in his too-small swimming pool — dead.
At first, Deirdre assumes her father’s death was a tragic accident. But the longer she stays in town the more Deirdre begins to suspect that everything isn’t as open-and-closed as she first presumed. The sudden resurfacing of Deirdre’s childhood BFF Joelen Nichol — daughter of the famous and infamous Elenor “Bunny” Nichol — seems like more than a coincidence.
Back in 1963, Joelen confessed to killing her movie-star mother’s boyfriend. Deidre was at the Nichols’ house the night of the murder, which was also the night she suffered her own personal tragedy. Could all of these events be connected?
As Deirdre digs deeper into the past, she becomes increasingly convinced that her father’s death is merely the deadly third act in a story that has long been in development. And if she isn’t careful, she might be its final victim.
Well-done! This was a brilliantly executed tense-filled drama that exploded off the pages in a tale of suspense that was hard to put down. The glamour of Hollywood’s past is felt in this terrific story of conspiracy, murder and the people who will do anything to protect that “life” even at the cost of a person’s history. The essence of this story took me to a time and place that gave an inside look into the happenings behind a gilded gate. This fast-paced, action-filled tome was enticingly sinful with a mystery that pulled me in immediately and kept me engaged from beginning to a conclusion worthy of a Hollywood finale. Deirdre is a great heroine determined to understand the truth and I felt every nuances of her discovery. The supporting cast was just as superb in their role and interactions. A great read that left me yearning for the good old days of Hollywood’s mystique.