The Hollywood Murders (The Catherine Tregowyn Mysteries #4) by G.G. Vandagriff

The Hollywood Murders (The Catherine Tregowyn Mysteries #4) Reviews

• 
  Kathy

  Amusing caper for Catherine and her Oxford pal as they travel over to California on the Queen Mary planning to teach literature as their main activity... but then being sidelined into yet another murder investigation on behalf of a man they met on the boat, father of a Hollywood starlet. They get to see California for the first time, mix with Hollywood elite and Catherine eventually solves the murder the starlet was wrongly accused of. Not before she ends up doing some rather impossible physical feats that are creative and rather amusing. And then there was a special "tie a bow around it" ending.
  Despite the drama, the book did amuse me, but I prefer Oxford as the setting.
  
  Kindle Unlimited
• 
  Mike Watson

  Good story...but it felt rushed, not the plot, but the actual writing, toward the end. I found mangled, chopped sentences, obvious grammar errors and misspellings. It was as if the story had been edited and then had the ending rewritten and then published without another edit/proof-reading scan.
  
  I rated the book as 4-star. I was being kind, the ending only earned 2-stars. But, based on her earlier books, I reluctantly rated the book as 4-stars.
• 
  Nanette Williamson

  3.5 Golden Age Dectectives meet Golden Age Hollywood.
• 
  Charlyn

  Catherine and Harry visit America
  
  Catherine, Harry and Dot finally make their planned visit to America for the two professors to do a stint as visiting faculty in California and for Dot to investigate possibilities for her products in New York. On the Atlantic voyage, Catherine and Harry meet Dr. Adler, who is also on his way to California to teach and to help his daughter, an actress who has been accused of murder. Learning of the duo’s crime-solving background, Adler asked Cat and Harry to help prove his daughter’s innocence. Romance and intrigue make their stay busy.
• 
  Kathy

  When Catherine Tregowyn and her boyfriend Harry Bascombe travel to Hollywood to give a summer lecture series, their plans run awry when a friend they made on the boat crossing the Atlantic finds his daughter imprisoned for the murder of her director. This case had lots of characters so it became a bit confusing at times but I love all the twists and turns in the plot making it so I had no idea who the murderer was until the very end. Fast paced! Riveting!
• 
  Rebecca Augustine

  Well Researched Mystery about 1930s Hollywood
  
  Naturally, because of liability, it was rare for "real" names to be used, nonetheless G.G. Vandergriff managed to capture the flavor of what the day's of the glamorous silver screen could have been like as well as its seedy underbelly.
  
  She also gave us a glimpse of the beginnings of UCLA. Who would ever guess that such a respected behemoth of world-renowned fame once had such a humble beginning?
• 
  Jill

  Desert Versus Dampness
  
  I liked the book but took a little offense to the many digs at the Americans and the Southwest. And there were no scenes at the studio or on the soundstage. Maybe I'm just too picky. As I said, I do like the book. Maybe Catherine and Harry should just stick to England and the Continent. (I've never been there)
• 
  Susanne Rommo

  fun cozy mystery series
  
  I am enjoying this cozy mystery/romance series. It’s in an era (1930s) and deals with the threat of Hitler against a backdrop of amateur sleuths and there is always a twist at the very end.
• 
  Jane Smith

  I need to remember I don’t care for this authors writing style. The characters conversations are so unrealistic. They become close to people with little introduction and feel being involved with a previous murder makes them qualified detectives. Too many loose ends at the finish of this book.
• 
  Nadine Gardner

  Fun and Hollywood
  
  Early Hollywood was interestingly portrayed, and the twist and turns kept coming. Most enjoyable series . This book was riveting !
• 
  Christine Margaret Costello

  Another very entertaining story. Hoping there will be more in this series, I enjoy the Oxford academic side as well as the crime fighting duo.
• 
  Jasmine Toohey

  Lovely follow up to the first 3 series. Like the fact it takes place in Hollywood.
• 
  Barbara

  Got a bit convoluted and I wanted more information at the end... But good.
• 
  SUSAN

  ✿●✿●✿●✿
  I was intrigued by the title of this novel and the plot synopsis; therefore, I picked up a copy. For me, it was difficult to read past Chapter 6, since the characters are wooden – no, “wooden” is too strong a description of them. The characters are cardboard-like. True, they move, they talk, they interact with one another, yet they are stiff and much too haughty and judgmental, as they go about their business with a twenty-first century attitude, rather than a pre-World War II mindset.
  
  When I read that “The eggs were delicious, served with avocados and something called sour cream,” I gasped. Britons would definitely know what sour cream was at the time, although they may have referred to it as “soured cream” or “crème fraiche,” but unless the characters in this story were only just now let out of their house, they would have known what sour cream was.
  
  Despite the assertion made in the novel, bagels are not buns, although the statement is made in the novel: “It turned out bagels were buns with a hole through the middle . . .”
  
  There are more oddball assertions in this novel, yet, as I stated, I got disgusted by the time I finished the sixth chapter.
  
  While this is an admirable effort,
  The Hollywood Murders is not cutting it for me.
  ✿▬✿●✿▬✿
  🏮Kindle Unlimited version.
  🗑 Pas pour moi. Abandoned. Conversely, other readers may find this story their cup of tea and right up their alley.
• 
  Lonny Johnson

  The Catherine Tregowyn mysteries are consistently high quality, period cozy mysteries. Set in the early 1930's, Catherine is an English Literature teacher at Oxford, a published poet, and a rather skilled amateur detective. If the series has a flaw, it's that Catherine, while quite good at gathering clues and reasoning her way toward a solution to the crime, has stumbled into the answer instead of reaching it on her own in the first three books. It's a little frustrating to watch her gather clues, formulate and discard theories, drawing ever closer to the solution, and then have it thrust upon her by accident. Nevertheless, they are well written, with interesting plots and characters. For a portion of Christie with a hint of Holmes, I recommend this series. I feel this is the best of the first three books, but you can't go wrong with any of them.