Milton M Raison (1903-1982) was an American writer better known for his radio, television, and film scripts than his books, although his first book was adapted for the big screen. For more about his career in movies, see his IMDb profile here: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0707213/
His mystery series character was drama critic Tony Woolrich, who appeared in six novels between 1936 and 1948. In Woolrich’s second adventure, Nobody Loves a Dead Man (Murray & Gee, 1945; Denis Archer, 1946), he leaves New York for Hollywood, where he’s been hired as a technical adviser on a movie in development. Once there, he recommends changing the murder method in the film script and a day later, the leading man selected for the movie, James Melville, is found dead by the same technique.
Melville was known for his uncontrollable drinking and womanizing and his ability to bring crowds to any movie he appeared in. He left a trail of sad and angry women behind him and often incensed husbands and boyfriends as well. The owner of the studio he was under contract to feared that the company would go bankrupt, because the film had to be cancelled and a significant outlay of resources to support it had already been made.
Once the death was confirmed as murder and not suicide, Woolrich begins to believe that he was brought into the movie just to develop a credible murder method for the killer. Not appreciating the role of cats’ paw in the least, he began his own investigation.
This book is one of many mysteries about Hollywood I have been reading that are contemporary with the time they portray. Written during the heyday of the film industry, a recurring theme is the power that studios had over actors. Unlike today, when no one knows the name of the CEO of most movie corporations, the studio executives had the star power back then. Another theme is the financial tightrope that studios walked. They only undertook to produce one film at a time. Money was so scarce that the failure to complete a movie and release it to the public could be enough to sink a studio. Whereas now, films and scripts are optioned and canceled routinely and a studio has any number of movies in some stage of development. The lack of technology to work around an actor who was suddenly no longer available partway through a film meant the cast members were incredibly valuable during the film production but expendable before and after.
The mystery here isn’t particularly well clued and I am still not sure how Woolrich reached his conclusion, considering how large the suspect pool was and the general lack of alibis. Definitely readable though, mostly for the perceptive and in-depth insight into the Hollywood scene in the 1940s from an industry insider.