The third book in the Archer series and I think I’m done. I really enjoy David Baldacci’s Amos Decker, John Puller, and Atlee Pine series. But I just cannot connect with the characters in this one. There is a lot of action and intrigue. And the author introduces you to life in Hollywood during the 1950s. One of the biggest negatives I have about this particular book is that there are so many characters. It’s hard to keep track of them and that’s something that really takes away from my enjoying a book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

I’m a huge David Baldacci fan, not so much the Archer series. I’ve read every Archer book and I’m not connecting with the characters as much as i do in his other books. The plot felt slow to me and I forced myself to finish.
I liked reading the behind the scenes parts of Hollywood and Las Vegas, the details are fantastic. 3 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.

Published by Grand Central Publishing on April 19, 2022

Dream Town is the third novel to feature David Baldacci's private investigator from the past, Aloysius Archer. The novel takes place in 1952-53 and is set in Los Angeles, a prime location of American noir in the last decade of noir’s golden age. Compared to crime writers of the 1950s, Baldacci is more David Goodis than Jim Thompson. Like Goodis’ protagonists, Archer isn’t particularly hard-boiled, but Baldacci is similar to Thompson in capturing the corrupt atmosphere that contaminates glitter and shatters dreams of the City of Angels.

The novel’s gritty plot involves human and drug trafficking. Mix in blackmail, murder, and kinky sex in a soulless city and you’ve got the elements of a noir novel. The characters are largely connected to the movie industry, organized crime, or both.

Archer brings a twenty-first century attitude about women to the 1950s as he condemns a culture that requires women to sleep their way to success but won’t allow successful women to sign mortgages without a male co-signer. Well, good for Archer, but I’m not convinced a male PI in 1953 would have shared Thompson’s vision of a better world. I was more convinced by the female characters who understand the unfairness of a patriarchal industry (and society) but are determined to succeed — in some cases, by adopting the corrupt tactics of the men who control the system.

Archer works with his mentor, Willie Dash, in the Bay Area. He’s in LA to see Liberty Callahan, with whom he has (or had) a thing. They’re having dinner when Eleanor Lamb, a screenwriter and friend of Liberty’s, turns up and tells Liberty of her fear that someone is trying to kill her. When Liberty explains that Archer is a private investigator, Lamb hires Archer to track down the source of her fear. Lamb promptly disappears, leaving Archer with a missing person investigation.

Archer’s investigation begins in Lamb’s house, where a man has answered the phone without identifying himself. Archer trips over a dead body in the house and, in the tradition of private eye novels in every era, is hit on the head and left in the house with the body.

Baldacci creates a seedy atmosphere with a mob-controlled establishment in Chinatown that takes advantage of desperate immigrants and blackmail victims to serve the unorthodox sexual interests of powerful men. Following clues to Lamb’s disappearance, Archer encounters violence in Chinatown, and on a beach where he stumbles across smugglers, and in Vegas and Lake Tahoe, and basically everywhere he goes. Archer is a violence magnet, an essential feature of a noir protagonist. Shootouts, fistfights, and car chases ensue.

The novel resolves, at least temporarily, Archer’s uncertain relationship with Liberty. It also portends a change in Archer’s career. He likes the Bay Area, but there’s more work available in LA and there’s something appealing about searching for reality in a city that is based on illusion.

The plot is intricate but, unlike a Chandler novel, it makes sense. Readers might want to make notes to keep track of all the relationships between the characters, and perhaps use pens of different colors to make clear that relationships change as the story evolves. The intricacy will keep the reader on his or her toes, making it a challenge to guess Lamb’s fate and the roles of the various characters who may or may not have been involved in her disappearance. If the ending is not entirely unexpected, that’s only because many possible endings are consistent with the plot. The one Baldacci chose is as good as any. Readers who enjoy 1950s noir and don’t want to revisit the originals should be entertained by Baldacci’s attempt to recapture the past.

RECOMMENDED

This is the 3rd Archer book in the series, it has the main characters from the previous characters and introduces us to lots of new characters as he moves to a new town. He needs both the old and new to solve the latest problem. This was a great addition to the series!

In One Good Deed, bestselling and award-winning author David Baldacci introduced readers to Aloysius Archer, a World War II veteran who had just been released from prison for a crime he maintained he did not commit. He became embroiled in a murder mystery and helped solve the case. He so impressed the lead detective, Irving Shaw, that Shaw recommended Archer to his buddy, Willie Dash, who once worked with Eliot Ness. As A Gambling Man, the second book in the series, opened, Archer was on his way to Bay Town, California, to take advantage of Shaw's generosity and convince Dash to give him a chance. Along the way, Archer found plenty of trouble, as well as Liberty Callahan, a Reno nightclub performer with dreams of making it big in Hollywood. Finally arriving in Bay Town, Archer became Dash's apprentice and his relationship with Liberty grew closer.

Dream Town begins with Archer, now thirty years old, and Liberty attending a posh party in Hollywood on New Year's Eve 1952. Archer still drives the 1939 red Delahaye convertible he acquired in A Gambling Man. He has spent three years working with and learning from Willie Dash in Bay Town, and is now an experienced and highly skilled investigator. Baldacci again expertly sets the scene, evoking the time period, and instantly draws readers into the time period. Baldacci wanted to write about the post-World War II era because he "finds it fascinating." It was a unique time in U.S. history. Americans were tired of being poor, having survived the Great Depression. There was a great migration to the West and, more particularly, California, the Golden State where life was sure to be better.

Gone is the Archer who survived war only to find himself in prison and then, in One Good Deed, on parole. He had to operate carefully because an infraction -- or violation staged by corrupt local officials -- could result in further incarceration. In A Gambling Man, Archer had been released from parole and was free to begin his journey to California, but he had not established himself as a competent investigator. Three years later, he is confident and self-assured, but still gets aggravated when he feels he could have handled a situation better. Archer is a multi-layered, fully formed character and very much a man of the time in which he lives. He is masculine and protective of those he believes he needs to shield from harm. He is also capable of introspection and has maintained a close friendship with Liberty while she has found modest success in Hollywood, landing supporting roles that pay extremely well, as she continues striving for the big break that will put her name on a marquee. His feelings for Liberty have deepened with time. But Liberty fears for Archer as he careens from one near-miss to another. Can she tolerate the stressors of Archer's profession? Or can she convince him to settle down and, perhaps, play a cop on a television show or in the movies?

Archer is immediately hired by Eleanor Lamb, a screenwriter living in Malibu. He is thrust into the Hollywood scene, interacting with famous, wealthy, powerful, and, in some cases, nefarious people who have much to lose. The story takes off at a brisk pace as Archer ventures to his client's home only to discover that she has vanished. He finds a dead body in the house and someone gets the jump on him as he is searching for details about the decedent's identity and actions.

Archer does not trust the police. First of all, the local force has a terrible reputation and has been at the center of scandals. More importantly, Archer has learned over the years that "anybody can be bought," so he does not provide information to the authorities as he gathers it. Archer has learned to rely only on himself and trust his investigative instincts. That wisdom is critical to the story because Baldacci reveals that money is at the root of several aspects of the plot. Which makes sense because, after all, Archer is operating in Hollywood with an eclectic cast of supporting characters who work at and operate big movie studios. There is a lot of money, along with reputations, at stake.

The story is told in Baldacci's signature style. He employs short, action-packed chapters that detail Archer's investigative efforts and his thought processes as he pieces together the clues he finds. Baldacci is known for his economy of language which always serves his stories well.

And language is an important component of the story's authenticity, of course. Archer lives in what "was a very different world" as is reflected not only in the characters' attitudes and outlooks, but also the very words and phrases they use. For instance, readers may find themselves reaching for a dictionary when Dash tells Archer to take a seat on the "davenport" in his office. (It's an antiquated term for "couch" or "sofa.") Archer uses the old-fashioned phrase, "Come again?" when he doesn't understand what another character is telling him. The way that male characters refer to and discuss women is jarring and, by today's standards, offensive. Baldacci explains that in order to adopt a historically accurate tone, he researched what life was like for women during the era. And some of what he discovered was shocking. In one scene, Archer visits a bank to inquire about Eleanor's purchase of her Malibu home. He learns that it was a cash transaction. To secure a mortgage, Elanor would have "needed a male co-signor. An unmarried woman can't get a mortgage without a suitable man signing with her." When Archer questions the practice, the banker cavalierly explains, "Banks need a guy on board to feel secure. And it's for the ladies' protection, too. Dames are clueless about money and such. They won't get taken for a ride with a sharp guy around. . . . I guess there's no law against a dame buying a house with her own cash, though there probably should be." (Women were not issued credit cards in their own names until the mid-1970's.)

And as with the previous installments in the series, locations serve as supporting characters in the story. Baldacci takes readers along with Archer to the beaches and canyons of Malibu, studio back lots, seedy parts of downtown Los Angeles, and even Orange County. One character lives in a modest tract house in Anaheim on the edge of a long-gone orange grove outside the city limits. Archer interacts with a friend of Dash's. He's a former police officer who now runs a bar near Chinatown. His name? Jake Nichols. Archer also takes a flight to Las Vegas where he mixes it up with mobsters, and makes his way to the beautiful shores of Lake Tahoe.

The story in Dream Town is another engrossing and highly entertaining journey featuring a tautly-constructed, imaginative, and often surprising plot. There are many dead bodies and numerous characters in various forms of distress, some of whom are motivated to commit heinous acts in order to preserve their wealth, power, and lifestyle. They are no match for Archer, who survives more than one assault in his quest to learn Eleanor's whereabouts and whether she was abducted or fled. And if the latter, what motivated her to disappear? Is she a victim or caught up in criminal activity?

Dream Town is a traditional mystery, in some ways outright old-fashioned. But it is also a charming and compelling escape to a time period when life was simpler. No characters send text messages or emails to each other, vehicles are large and gas-powered, the old Hollywood studio system is still operational, and society's expectations of men and women are clearly outlined. Archer, Liberty and many of the other characters smoke. (Archer's brand is Lucky Strike.) Thus, the story is also thought-provoking because it spotlights how much the world has changed in the ensuing seventy years. Best of all, Archer is attractive, endearing, and surprisingly vulnerable, and accompanying him as his latest investigation proceeds is enjoyable in much the same way as watching classic black-and-white movies. Happily, Baldacci promises more installments, noting that his research has provided plenty of material for future Archer adventures. It will be fascinating to see if any time elapses between the conclusion of Dream Town and the beginning of the next book, and if Archer, and the world, will have changed.

This story begins on New Year’s eve 1952. Aloysius Archer and his friend Liberty Callahan are out on the town celebrating when they by chance have their evening interrupted by Eleanor Lamb, an acquaintance of Liberty’s. Eleanor relates to Archer and Callahan the frightening experiences she’s been having. She fears her life is in danger and she’s hoping that Archer will help her out by looking into these matters. Before Archer can begin, a body shows up in Eleanor’s house, AND now she has disappeared. Fast moving, and a look back to the early 1950’s makes this novel a different and fun story. You can’t help but like Archer, Callahan and his partner Willie Dash. This is the third Archer novel, which can be a stand alone novel, and is every bit as exciting as the previous two. Thank You to Net Galley, the Author David Baldacci and Grand Central Publishing for allowing me to read this great story.

I don’t think I’ve ever had to drag myself to the end of a David Baldacci book. I have read every single Baldacci novel. Not all of them are good, but all of them have held my interest. Except this one. Part of it is Baldacci’s deviation from his norm. Aloysius Arthur is a unique character and the setting of 1950s California—and the slower-paced, more hardboiled detective story that results—is quite a change of pace from Baldacci’s normal fare. Neither One Good Deed nor A Gambling Man were my favorite Baldacci novels, but the unique characters and novel setting kept me hooked. Dream Town may have ended that.

It's New Year’s Eve 1952 and Aloysius Arthur is establishing himself as PI while his erstwhile love interest Liberty Callahan is following her dream of making it big during Hollywood’s Golden Age. Unlike the previous books, Dream Town (as the title suggests) takes place right in the middle of Hollywood and features a missing screenwriter, a dead PI, and the cutthroat political intrigue of moviemaking. As Baldacci is always keen to establish a social message, the misogyny of Hollywood and the 1950s in general is on full display (our hero, aside, of course).

The plot manages to be both unnecessarily complicated and nonexistent as a slow pace never develops into anything else other than layer after layer of intrigue and twists for the sake of intrigue and twists. Baldacci does nothing positive to advance the relationship between Aloysius and Liberty and none of the new characters made any sort of impression. Maybe I would have fared better with the audiobook, as that’s a more passive way to consume a story, but between the slow pace and lackluster characters, Dream Town sent me to sleep more than once.

Dream Town
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5
Genre: Thriller / Crime Fiction
Format: Kindle eBook
Date Published: 4/19/22
Author: David Baldacci
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Pages: 432
Goodreads Rating: 4.23

Thank you to NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for providing a copy of the book for me to read in exchange for my honest opinion.

Synopsis: It’s the eve of 1953, and Aloysius Archer is in Los Angeles to ring in the New Year with an old friend, aspiring actress Liberty Callahan, when their evening is interrupted by an acquaintance of Callahan’s: Eleanor Lamb, a screenwriter in dire straits. After a series of increasingly chilling events—mysterious phone calls, the same blue car loitering outside her house, and a bloody knife left in her sink—Eleanor fears that her life is in danger, and she wants to hire Archer to look into the matter. Archer suspects that Eleanor knows more than she’s saying, but before he can officially take on her case, a dead body turns up inside of Eleanor’s home . . . and Eleanor herself disappears. Missing client or not, Archer is dead set on finding both the murderer and Eleanor.

My Thoughts: The chapters are short making for a fast paced book. The POV is from Archer. The author did a fantastic job of describing Hollywood in the 1950s, made me feel like I was right there with Archer. This is part of the Archer series and Baldacci has done an amazing job of creating this character and you can pick up any book in the series to read as a stand alone and be able to follow the character with no issues, the characters were well-thought out and planned very well. The author is able to keep the plot running throughout the story, keeping you engaged and page turning. I enjoyed reading this book.

I’ve been a fan of David Baldacci for some time now. Not only do the subjects of his novels entertain and hold your attention he creates some great characters as well. I’d not heard of his character Aloysius Archer before but I’ll be looking for him now.

Set in the 1950s in LA Baldacci takes the hard-boiled detective genre and makes it his own. I’ll be honest and say up front that when I began reading this novel I wasn’t sure he could make it work. It felt a little clichéd at times. But as the story progressed his writing got into the right groove and all was well.

Baldacci combines the detective novel with the glitz of Hollywood and the grit of the underworld creating a story that compels you to keep turning the page to find out what happens next. His characters are believable and fit into the scene they come from. It’s not a happy ending for all involved but the reality of what transpires feels natural.

Fans of detective novels or of Baldacci will find an enjoyable read if they pick this one up. And you might find yourself seeking out Aloysius Archer as well.

I'm loving the Archer series, with the third entry confirming that David Baldacci has successfully nailed the hard boiled detective genre. When visiting his friend and aspiring star Liberty Callahan on New Years Eve 1953, Archer is drawn into a case when Liberty's friend, Ellie Lamb runs into them at dinner. Ellie is afraid someone is trying to kill her and Archer agrees to meet her the next morning to get a check and the details. That doesn't happen. (of course). Now, Elsie is missing. Baldacci weaves every convention into Archer and his investigations: Stumbling across bodies, constantly an inch away from being killed, dogged, logical witness interviews, checking out various scenes until the penny drops, making stupid mistakes, having a total heart of gold and more. The various characters include bigwigs in Hollywood, aspiring bigwigs, people with a lot of money, people with more money, a very scary mobster running a scandalous, dangerous business, a cameo appearance by Sen. Joseph McCarthy and more. I get a kick out of the characters who add detail to a story, the loyal receptionist Audrey, giving up nothing; the loyal greeter at a den of inequity whose response to every question is to repeatedly direct Archer to the bar. And while there is a familiarity to the description of LA and Vegas in the early 50s, Baldacci truly brings a freshness to it and I can't figure out quite how he did that.

I wish I could say more, but the plot is great and the details are too much fun to ruin with hints of any kind. I'm a fan of several Baldacci series, but Archer is winning first place for me.

I struggled through half this book in a week when I usually read a book like this in two days. I haven't read this series before so I lacked allegiance to Archer and Ransome and I wasn't familiar enough with their history to appreciate the sexual tension. The writing was good but slow and there were too many similar characters. Perhaps the reading of the other book(s) in the series should be done first.

Copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley

I plunged right into Baldacci's PI series featuring Aloysius Archer, WWII vet, set in Hollywood in the 50s. 'It was a town that took every single dream you had and then merrily ran it right through the world's biggest meat grinder.'

There was no problem starting with this third book in the series. The atmosphere of the plot is very LA noir with lots of smoking, shooting, deception and general misbehaving. Archer cleverly works his way through the many layers of this mystery, almost getting killed more than once. Being a private investigator is a dangerous business and 'even good guys can make bad choices when things get desperate.'

I received an arc of this new thriller from the publisher via NG in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to them for the opportunity.

4 stars

You can read all of my reviews at Nerd Girl Loves Books.

This is a really good historical fiction mystery/thriller. I must admit, I read the first book in this series One Good Deed and did not enjoy it very much. In fact, I couldn't even finish it! This really surprised me, because I normally really enjoy David Baldacci's books. I'm so glad that I revisited the series because this book was so good.

It's New Year's Eve in 1953 and Archer is in LA to spend the night with his friend, aspiring actress Liberty Callahan. They are at a fancy schmancy party with the Hollywood elite when a screenwriter Liberty's knows, Eleanor Lamb, approaches them and asks to hire Archer because she feels that her life is in danger. They make a plan to meet the next day, but later in the evening Archer decides to check on Lamb's safety and discovers a dead body in her house and Lamb missing. This sets Archer on a path to find the killer, and Lamb, and pits him against dangerous LA gangs, mobsters in Vegas, and the seedy side of Hollywood.

The book starts off slowly, and continues to build tension until the crazy end. The more Archer investigates, the more complicated the problem gets. Baldacci does a great job of snowballing Archer's situation, adding more and more nefarious villains as the book progresses. Most of the minor characters are your stereotypical bad guys, but I didn't mind, as it was still fun to read. The book shines a light on the darker side of Hollywood and fame during that time period, particularly the studio contracts that used to bind actors to studios and dictate pretty much their whole life, which I've read about in other books and was pretty awful to women.

If you're looking for an old fashioned complicated mystery, this is the book for you. While this book is part of a series, it's written as a standalone and you don't have to read the other books to enjoy this one. There is enough exposition in it to fill you in on the back story of the characters.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing. All opinions are my own.

David Baldacci is one of the writers that you know as soon as you sit down, you are in it for the long haul. His books are unputdownable and this book is no different.

This is book 3 in the Archer Series. It can easily be read as a stand alone but reading them all is well worth the time. Archer is a PI in Los Angeles. It’s the start of 1954 and the city of angels is off to a rough start.

There is mystery and intrigue through the entire read. Definitely another hit for David Baldacci.

Thank you to #netgalley and #grandcentralpublishing for allowing me the opportunity to read the eARC. All opinions expressed above are my own.

Name of Book: Dream Town
Author: David Baldacci
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Pub Date: April 19, 2022
My Rating: 3.5+ Stars! Rounded up!


This is Book # 3 in the Archer series and it is Baldacci book #28 for me ~ yep I am a fan. I especially love the following Baldacci characters: John Puller, Will Robie, and Amos Decker; now have added Aloysius Archer to my list. When I read "One Good Deed" which was #1 in this series, I was hooked!

In this story, Archer, war veteran and now private investigator is here in ‘Dream Town’ ringing in1953 with an old friend. ~ Yes! I live near LA. Although wasn’t here in 1953, but it is fun to visit Hollywood’s 50’s glitz and glamor and other local places with Archer driving his
Of course, there is a murder and Archer is on it!

This story isn’t a big twist and turn thrill read (true a few twists); I like Archer so did enjoy it.

Want to thank NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing for this eGalley. This file has been made available to me before publication in an early form for an honest professional review.
Publishing Release Date scheduled for April 19, 2022.

I am a fan of David Baldacci’s books and look forward to reading each new one. Even though Dream Town wasn’t my favorite I did like it and appreciate Baldacci’s style of writing. Archer is a self doubting private detective who takes on Hollywood in 1953 with all its glamor and danger. I look forward to following Archer in any future books.

Dream Town is the third installment in the popular Archer series by bestselling author David Baldacci. The protagonist is Aloysius Archer and the time period is post war 1953 where Archer served, then was jailed for a crime he didn’t commit, and is now a private investigator. In this novel, Archer goes to Los angeles to meet his friend, aspiring actress Liberty Callahan. While at a New Year’s Eve party, an acquaintance of Liberty, Ellie Lamb, who has joined them at their table, insists someone is trying to kill her and tells Archer she wants to hire him and to meet him in the morning at her office to pick up his check and sign a contract. However, Lamb is missing and a PI’s body is found in her home. Archer begins searching for Lamb, and gets himself involved in Hollywood and the world of acting and screenwriting.

Baldacci is a master storyteller, and this series is no exception. Since it’s set in the 1950s, it’s obvious that he has done his homework to make the setting true to the time period. He is also very good at developing his characters. Aloysius Archer is a likeable, relatable character; he is a perfect protagonist for an ongoing series. The supporting characters in this novel are believable as real people, both good and bad. Baldacci knows how to use them to move the story along, build suspense, and keep readers wondering who is responsible for murder and the surprising dénouement.

If readers haven’t read the previous novels in this series, they have missed out and ought to read them. However, this third novel in the series can be read as a standalone novel. Baldacci is always recommended, and this novel is very good.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

In Dream Town (Archer 3) by David Baldacci due out April 19, private eye Aloysius Archer heads to Los Angeles to visit with an actress friend to ring in 1953. Their celebration is interrupted when Liberty’s friend Eleanor Lamb stops by their table and hires Archer on the spot when she learns he is a private eye because she believes someone is trying to kill her.

Archer plans to meet Lamb the next day to get a contract signed and a down payment for his services, but Lamb is missing, and there is a dead body in her house. Even though his new client is missing and there is no retainer fee, Archer takes on solving the mystery of the dead man and the missing woman.

He soon finds himself chasing all over Los Angeles along with a trip to Las Vegas as he tries to put the clues together. Unfortunately, he comes across smugglers and a mob executioner as the plot thickens, and Archer sifts the truth from the lies as he chases one puzzle piece after another.

Typical of a Baldacci thriller, the kernel of truth is hidden in a plot that is as twisted and furious as a tornado. David Baldacci published his first novel, Absolute Power, in 1996, and it became a popular movie starring Clint Eastwood. Baldacci, a former lawyer, has published another 40+ novels for grownups since Absolute Power.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting April 10, 2022.

I would like to thank Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

Private investigator and World War II veteran Aloysius Archer finds himself on a collision course with death in Dream Town, best-selling author David Baldacci's third Archer adventure. I read Baldacci's latest novel courtesy of NetGalley and Grand Central Publishing in exchange for an objective review.
Objectively, stop what you are doing, go to the nearest bookstore or library, and get your hands on Dream Town. You can thank me later. It's THAT good. I am being objective here, or I would quickly run out of superlatives.

It's the eve of 1953, and Aloysius Archer is in Los Angeles to ring in the New Year with an old friend and rising actress. Their dinner is interrupted by a successful screenwriter who fears someone is trying to murder her. Faster than you can say Dragnet's classic opening line, "Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to hear is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent," Archer finds himself overwhelmed by dead bodies, double-dealing husbands, lying wives, unscrupulous cops, and murderous drug dealers out to exterminate anyone and everyone who gets in their way.

Baldacci has written a brilliant, old-fashioned gumshoe tale about Hollywood in all its gloriously seedy past. The streets are neon-washed and streaked with rain puddles. Alleys are deep, shadowy and menacing. The storied movie industry is alluring, seductive, and overflowing with betrayals and broken souls. The action is relentless, taut and unpredictable. His dramatic personae are varied, beautifully detailed, and fascinating to the nth degree. And Aloysius Archer, himself, is more than capable of breaking hearts. He is quick-tongued (which he often regrets), quick-witted, and does what he can daily to make his small part of the world a better place.
I'm now going back to read the first two books in the series, with the hope that more are on the way. Bravo, Mr. Baldacci, ya did good!

You must've been very brave to do what you did.
I didn't have time to be brave. I just had time to duck.

The 1950's was a glamourous time in Hollywood. Hollywood never showed it's dark side but always showed the best and the glamourous. In Baldacci new character Private Investigator Aloysius Archer is in a complicated relationship with an upcoming star. The couple are at a Hollywood New Years Party. You are taken to a different time. When a screenwriter approaches the couple and finds out that Archer is a PI, she sets up an appointment. She is worried that her life is in danger. When Archer calls her later that night, a man answers the phone and like a dog with bone, Archer makes the trip to the clients house, he finds a world of trouble.

A Hollywood thriller, with murder, smuggling, China Town mob, Las Vegas ties in the backdrop of the Hollywood Elite, Archer fits the bill. Archer is debonair, loyal, and he never gives up. I liked going back to a familiar time made known by the old movies I am fond of. Some things never change, like crime, power, and the victims of the mob but some things have changed for the good. Like women being able to independent.

If Baldacci continues with Archer, I will be there! I loved it.

A special thank you to Grand Central Publishing and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.