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Death is a Lonely Business
Death is a Lonely Business
Author: Ray Bradbury
In DEATH IS A LONELY BUSINESS, Ray Bradbury, a master of the modern supernatural, works his magic in a new way, giving us a novel that is a loving tribute to the hard-boiled detective genre and a nostalgic evocation of time and place. It is 1949 in Venice, California and the last great amusement pier is coming down. Amid this death there are fo...  more »
ISBN-13: 9780394547022
ISBN-10: 0394547020
Publication Date: 10/12/1985
Pages: 277
Rating:
  • Currently 3.8/5 Stars.
 6

3.8 stars, based on 6 ratings
Publisher: Knopf
Book Type: Hardcover
Other Versions: Paperback, Audio Cassette
Members Wishing: 0
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reviewed Death is a Lonely Business on + 27 more book reviews
The image of drowned circus cages in the trash-filled canals of Venice, California, both haunts and illuminates famed fantasy and science fiction author Ray Bradbury's rare venture into the mystery field. Like filmmaker Federico Fellini, Bradbury is fascinated by the seedy splendor of cheap carnivals and circuses--"a long time before, in the early Twenties, these cages had probably rolled by like bright summer storms with animals prowling them, lions opening their mouths to exhale hot meat breaths. Teams of white horses had dragged their pomp through Venice and across the fields."

But now it's the early 1950s, and foggy, shabby Venice is the last stop on the circus train for scores of old silent-movie stars and young writers trying to keep their art and their bodies alive. As Bradbury's autobiographical hero, a young writer, pounds out his short stories, someone is killing off the older denizens of the tacky city. The writer joins forces with a quirky detective called Elmo Crumley and a faded screen star to investigates the deaths. Their search begins and ends in one of those iconic, waterlogged cages.

Blending hard-boiled detective fiction with beautiful descriptions of this strange Californian town, Death Is a Lonely Business is well worth investigating. --Dick Adler
reviewed Death is a Lonely Business on
A curious mystery by Ray Bradbury. A good read.


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