Summary
After discovering her husband’s infidelity in all its publicized Hollywood glory, Nora Paige flees to San Francisco. Her best friend Robbie puts her up in her guest house and asks her to step in as manager of The Palace, a theater that shows movies as classic as the building is.
On her first day, Nora meets her core staff – Marty, the grumpy projectionist; Albert, who’s been seeing movies at the Palace for over 80 years; Callie, the film student; and Brandon, the teen concessions worker. All of them were quite fond of the last manager, Kate, who had died only a couple weeks earlier from a fall. When Nora discovers a dead body at The Palace, though, Kate’s death starts to look less and less like an accident.
With the help of her staff, her friend Robbie, Kate’s best friend Monica, and Trixie the ghost of an usherette who died at The Palace, Nora is looking into what really happened to Kate. What she finds will have a long-lasting impact on The Palace.
Review
I loved this! Nora was GREAT! I loved how she is processing the changes in her life while dealing with all the things going on at The Palace.
The setting of this is so fresh. I loved the classic movies angle, both for the theater and also throughout the story. I’m excited to track down some of the movies that are part of the book.
The cast of characters is quirky and eclectic. And there’s enough of them to be interesting without there being too many to track. Nora’s relationship with her grumpy projectionist is my favorite. I so want her to put him in his place when he questions her movie “cred,” but I figure that will come eventually. The author throws in an interesting wrinkle right at the end which will carry readers into book 2. I can’t wait!
The mystery is great. Not too drawn out, but with interesting suspects and motives. Lots of questions for Nora to work through and for readers to puzzle out, too.
I’m a huge fan of this series launch. I’m eager to see where things go in the future with this must-read Movie Palace Mystery series.