Hollywood Gothic by Thomas Gifford

Convicted of murder, a screenwriter gets a chance to clear his name

The police find Toby Challis clutching his bloodstained Oscar statuette, his wife dead at his feet. He claims innocence, but the jury doesn’t buy it, believing that such a cinematic murder could spring only from the mind of one of Hollywood’s finest screenwriters. Nearly driven mad by the time spent waiting for the verdict, Challis has no idea how he will survive more than a decade in the big house. Lucky for him, he won’t have to find out—yet.

To transport Challis to prison, the state provides only an old prop plane. A freak blizzard hits it hard, knocking it out of the sky and killing everyone on board but the convict. Challis escapes into the woods, to find the man who killed his wife and plan what every script needs: a Hollywood ending.

“Good reading . . . saturated with Hollywood, old and new.” —New York Times

“Tough and gripping.” —Donald E. Westlake, on The Assassini

“One of the best suspense novels to come along in a long time.” —Pittsburgh Post Gazette, on The Wind Chill Factor