I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. Great historical fiction book. Recommend.

This novel was inspired by real events. I thought the storyline was very slow with very little investigating. The mystery was predictable. I did like learning about Old Hollywood and Valentino!

For me, this story was a bit slow and not fast paced enough. But I did love the historical setting of life in the 1920s! I really felt like I was immersed in the time period. And the surprise ending was definitely fun.

I really enjoyed reading this book, it was a great mystery, I loved the use of old Hollywood and I found the characters to be really unique and fun. It was a great read and I hope we see Bianca again.

Book 2 in the saga of Bianca LaBelle, fictional Silver Screen actress, delves into the (true) untimely death of the legendary Rudolph Valentino. In this story, Bianca and Rudolph are the best of friends, and when he began getting mysterious notes with veiled death threats and barely escapes random "accidents," he confides in Bianca. Bianca draws from her considerable resources and enlists the help of private investigator Ted Oliver, who is also working for the feared crime mistress, K.D. Dix, to discover who is out to get Valentino.

To begin with, when I realized this was book 2 about Bianca LaBelle, I went ahead and purchased book 1 since I had a little extra reading time on my hands. I am so glad I did - and I do recommend reading book 1 before reading this book. "The Wrong Girl" gives the background on how Bianca came to be a Hollywood star and how Ted Oliver came to work for K.D. Dix and how both their paths crossed. You would be able to read book 2 and still follow the story, but it will be much more enjoyable if you read book 1 first.

I think because I went ahead and started with book 1, I will continue reading this series; I loved the descriptions of the glamorous life in the early 1900s and it was interesting reading about the real life characters in this story: Mary Pickford, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, Pola Negri, etc. The blending of the fictional and real characters was seamless, and the author stayed as true to the real characters as possible. In her end notes and in the brief research I did, she changed very little of the real actors' histories, instead using the fictional characters to round out their histories.

I feel like we are getting teasers of a romantic relationship between Bianca and Ted, and wish some more attention would have been paid to that. I do like how Ted is getting more involved with K.D. Dix's gangster organization and am wondering how he will be able to get out of it with out losing his life - definite teasers that there will be more books in this series. Also noted is that Donis Casey has written a 10-book series about Bianca's mother, so that is further indication the Bianca LaBelle series will be a long-running series. I recommend to get started reading now - this is a historical fiction series you will want to keep up with!

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. This book really captured the feel of the 20's and I loved it! I also loved the surprise ending

Even if it's well written I found the story quite slow and it didn't keep my attention.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I would like to thank NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this book.
I really wanted to love this book as I have always found irresistible Rudolph Valentino that mythical male specimen from the golden days of Hollywood. However, the mystery felt quite flat and "unrealistic". I also couldn't connect at all with Bianca, although I really loved her friendship with Valentino.
The ending came as a surprise to me and If only it could have been true!

You should definitely read this one if you enjoy historical mysteries!

I struggled to get into the story at first, then it picked up pace; however, I found the section on the ship unsatisfactory. It seemed all too easy for the three of them to escape their captors. And then the cage of the ship and Donahue felt very rushed.

Valentino Will Die earns 5/5 Silver Screen Adventures...Engaging Page-Turner!

It was 1920. Fifteen-year-old Blanche Tucker believed a man when, claiming to be a film producer, he said she had “IT.” So, she joined him, excited about her Hollywood destination. Unfortunately, the reality is more a cruel comment on her naïveté than a journey to fame and fortune. However, circumstances put her back on track becoming the protégés of a famous, yet trouble, film star, and with the help from Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, she becomes Bianca LeBelle, celebrated star of the silent silver screen, famous for the serialized movies titled “The Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse.”

Six years later. Bianca is starring in a new film opposite her good friend and ally in Hollywood, Rudolph Valentino. They had met at one of the many Hollywood parties and immediately hit it off. Despite their ten-year age difference, they shared a similar story: both arriving in Hollywood struggling and plagued with a troubled past, then a series of events and chance meetings rocketed them to fame and fortune. The two became close friends, not lovers, and when life gets a bit complicated, they’re each other’s safe haven. However, Rudy hasn’t been himself lately. His sizzling persona has been lackluster. They break early from the set and Bianca suggests Rudy come home with her promising she’ll fix something to ease his stomach ailment. It also gives them the opportunity to discuss how they plan to handle the studio’s new plans to fake an off-screen romance between them in order to boost on-screen dollars. Of course, a bit of subterfuge is common in the industry, but it’s the least of Rudy’s worries; he shares a disturbing fan letter: “Valentino Will Die.” It proves prophetic when Rudy collapses, is rushed to the hospital, and doctors worry he won’t survive. Bianca rushes to his side—well, four days later, L.A. to New York by train—where he tells her he believes he’s been poisoned and pleads for her to find out who’s trying to kill him. The world is shocked by the headlines: The Sheik is Dead! Who would do this? Did she really know her friend?

Donis Casey has penned a fascinating literary vision of the life and death of Rudy Valentino through the eyes of a delightful young woman Bianca LeBelle. Her well-written drama describes a realistic Hollywood community, incorporates many historical figures, and devises a unique theory that Valentino’s untimely death was murder. Her scenarios are fascinating and plausible with suspects well illustrated for the 1920s; motives swirl about from New York to L.A. as Bianca channels her intrepid on-screen character to investigate. She enlists a private detective friend in L.A. who has already been hired by a crime boss to investigate Rudy’s death. It is made complicated by his feelings toward Bianca and covert efforts to shield her from another murder he’s been hired to investigate. The intrigue, misdirection, and compelling details are delightfully painted with a brush straight of the Golden Era in Hollywood making this novel and author a top surprise for 2021!

SIDE NOTE: It may be insignificant, but the manner by which a novel is organized can add, or detract, from its entertainment value. Here...it’s a million bucks worth! The chapters are not marked with one, two, etc., or a catchy pun or summary title, but instead with a movie script direction followed by descriptions of a scene being filmed or a newspaper headline followed by additional insights. Throughout the book, often signaling a break in the drama or the passing of time, she adds a quote or an interesting thought to follow-up as insight or preface to the next bit of drama. It is unique, and I loved it! Don’t miss reading the “Real Or Not Real” section which provides a nice introduction into several (Real) historical figures and events that play major to minor roles in the drama. Of course, the “Maybe Real, Maybe Not” is an entertaining look into the main, reoccurring, or just now charters in this series.

What an interesting series this is. I love old Hollywood and this book takes real life characters and mixes them with fictional characters in a fascinating mystery. The title says it all. Valentino will die, but does he die of natural causes as has been the “known” story, or was their something nefarious about his death? The main protagonist is a fictional actress names Bianca LaBelle the female action star of her day. She is good friends with Valentino and when he says he feels he has been murdered, she sadly agrees to investigate. The book takes you on an adventure ride through golden era Hollywood, when the stars were thought to be saints, but most were sinners. If you enjoy a historical mystery with great characters, fun adventures and old Hollywood glamor, this book is for you.

Thanks to Netgalley, Doris Casey and Poisoned Pen Press for the chance to read and review this book

Valentino Will Die is the second novel in a series by Donis Casey. The book centers around the death of Rudolph Valentino in 1926. Casey's take is that Valentino was poisoned and did not die solely from a perforated ulcer. Shortly before his death he tells his friend Bianca LaBelle that he thinks someone is trying to kill him and after he ends up in the hospital he asks her to find out who is doing this. Bianca enlists the help of a private investigator, Douglas Fairbanks, and Jimmy Quirk to find out pieces of what happened. This take on Valentino's death brings together real-life Hollywood elite, mobsters, tycoons, and Casey's fictional world.
I have not read the first book in the series and while I did not need to have read it some of the fictional relationships and back story might have made it a fuller experience. I definitely enjoyed the book and will look for the third one (I may even go back and read the first one).

The next edition in the go going story of Bianca Dangereuse Hollywood Mysteries . Bianca is Blanche Tucker who we learn more about in this next edition of the spin off book. Complete with the stars of the twenties, and the mystery of Valentino this is a must read for all fascinated my the twenties and the Hollywood of a past era. Loved the mix of Bianca and Valentino, the closeness because each understands the hazards of their make-believe life. Can hardly wait for the next book!!! Want more of bot Biance and her mother.

"Valentino will die!" Yes it's 1926 and Rudolph Valentino will soon die but was he poisoned? That is the central question in this delightful whodunit set in Hollywood & NYC during the glorious Roaring Twenties and at the peak of the silent movie era.
Donis Casey's second installment in the Adventures of Bianca Dangereuse is a winner because the author has brilliantly mixed real facts and fiction to produce a highly entertaining mystery novel full of period details, speakeasy slang and unforgettable characters, real and unreal.
Bianca LaBelle, a young Hollywood star, is convinced that her friend Rudy was murdered. So she doggedly launches her own investigation....
A delicious read where Douglas Fairbanks, Pola Negri, Mary Pickford, the glamour of Hollywood & Prohibition Era mobsters intermingle uproariously! Once started this marvellous gem was unputdownable! Please Donis, we need more Bianca Dangereuse in our lives, in the near future!

Many thanks to Netgalley and Poison Pen Press for the opportunity to read this wonderful novel prior to its release date

This is a fun romp through 1920s Hollywood, full of great slang and fabulous clothes and real-life stars. I enjoyed the quick pace and Casey's framing of the novel as a silent film itself. Film buffs, history lovers, and anyone who likes a mystery will enjoy this take on the death of Rudolph Valentino and the LA underworld. I'm going to go read the first installment of the series--this is the second, but you don't need any prior knowledge to enjoy it or understand what's going on--and will look forward to more.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this book- I'm not terribly familiar with the 1920s/1930s film world, other than seeing a few glamorous photos. However, after reading Valentino Will Die, I must learn more! I very quickly got lost in Valentino Will Die- Casey weaves in filming and acting life into this very dramatic story, and I loved that she carried that throughout the book. And in terms of a mystery, I can honestly say I did not see this ending coming in any way. This is the second book in a series, but I read this without having read the first without any issue. (Although I will be going back to read it!)

Rudolph Valentino is a top movie star adored by women yet he really wants a simple life! He keeps receiving death threats and he becomes even more fearful when a vase falls on him during the making of a movie. He decides to confide in his fellow star, beautiful and sassy Bianca. Bianca seems confident, but she is also somewhat lonely and troubled, so she and Rudy understand each other and she tries to help him.

Rudy's death leads her to a chain of investigations into who killed him. Was it the magician with strange eyes, the gangsters to whom he owed money or a spiteful ex-girlfriend? Bianca has to follow every lead. Luckily, she has a private detective and a journalist who can help her.

This is a fast-paced, well-written and interesting murder story by Donis Casey filled with real characters from 1920s Hollywood, such as Mary Pickford. The historical atmosphere is well-researched and exotic with its gamblers and bootleggers. It was a great idea to write a story based on Valentino's death, and I look forward to more novels featuring the intrepid Bianca.

I received this free ebook from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Valentino Will Die by Donis Casey is a fictionalized account of the death of Rudolph Valentino and filled with real people who surrounded that event as well as a slew of fictionalized characters, not the least of which is Bianca LaBelle, or Blanche Tucker as she was born. Bianca is a dear friend of Valentino's and has been worried. He had shown her a death threat he had received and she had been present for at least one "accident." One his deathbed, her had called her to his side, across the country, to day good-bye and ask her to investigate his death. She sorrowfully agreed, still not convinced her wouldn't recover. When he did indeed die, she returned to Los Angles, to finish the Bianca Dangereuse movie she had left in such a hurry and began to investigate.

Bianca contacted a private investigator she knew, Ted Oliver, and rode on horseback to Rudy's house to collect his diary, as he had instructed her. It was gone, but there were a huge stack of bills; some paid, some not. Bianca is a fabulously dramatic and stunning character is actually never very far from her Oklahoma roots. She is fiercely loyal, extremely closed-mouthed, and seriously intelligent. Casey does a wonderful job of sliding her into a story and finishing the story in a new and wonderful way. Such is the death of Valentino, although the read must be wary to remember it is fiction. The plot was good, and the pacing excellent. The other characters were well-rounded enough to play their parts, and, where appropriate, be true to history. Wonderful book. Harkens back to an enticing time in Hollywood! You can't beat it!

I was invited to read a free ARC of Valentino Will Die by Netgalley. All opinions contained herein are solely my own. #netgalley #valentinowilldie

As luck would have it, I've had the pleasure of reading back-to-back two historical mysteries set in Hollywood. Donis Casey's second Bianca Dangereuse mystery, Valentino Will Die, is set in the Silent Movie Era and involves the legendary Rudolph Valentino himself.

In reality, film star Bianca LaBelle, the heroine of the wildly popular Bianca Dangereuse film series, is Blanche Tucker, daughter of farm woman Alafair Tucker who was last seen in Forty Dead Men. Living on a farm outside tiny Boynton, Oklahoma, was a fate worse than death for teenage Blanche, so she ran away from home and barely managed to land on her feet in Hollywood. (Readers can find out how that happened in The Wrong Girl.) As much as I enjoy this new series, I'm still fond of Alafair, and Casey cannily includes little clues as to how Bianca's family is doing.

The mystery in Valentino Will Die is a good one, and so is the setting. While readers are trying to guess who's got it in for the world's number one heartthrob, they see a fresh-from-Broadway young Hungarian named Bela Lugosi and get to attend swanky parties. Los Angeles mob figures also make their deadly presence known. Amidst the investigating, there are some laughs when Douglas Fairbanks bemoans being typecast, and Bianca learns how difficult it is to make "a stealthy escape from a crowded room when you're famous." But perhaps the biggest laugh of all came from the description of Bianca's beloved dog, Jack Dempsey, a canine that "could be part prairie dog and part something else. Maybe a mongoose. Or a wig." I hope the little guy makes more appearances in future books.

I enjoy Casey's handling of historical figures, and while the mystery is deadly serious, she has a light touch that's reminiscent of those silent Perils of Pauline-type serial thrillers. Want to know what's real and what's not? Everything's listed at the back of the book. In the mood for a good mystery to solve? Pick up a copy of Valentino Will Die (and I'm not even going to talk about the ending). I can't wait to find out what Bianca gets up to next!

So...bad me in that I didn't realize this was the 2nd book of the series. My bad!

However, I will say this was a fun read. I love historical fiction, and the 20's are so rarely written about, and even more rarely are they written WELL. This was a mystery, but a lighter mystery, and a good read if you enjoy lighter mystery novels. Overall, I enjoyed it - but probably wouldn't reread.

Thank you Netgalley, the author, and publisher for providing me an ARC!