This was an enjoyable romp, with a plot that felt like the Algonquin Round Table got transplanted to Los Angeles and had to solve a mystery. That stinging Dorothy Parker-style wit was all over this book, with some genuinely funny lines.

The trouble, though, with that type of humor is that it can get a bit tiring reading a bunch of people (however cleverly) sniping at each other. I also struggle with the idea of a person coming on the scene and instantly being integrated into a pre-existing group of close friends - as much as we'd all like to move to a new town and be immediately accepted by the hot rich queer weirdos, I think you need at least something else in play to sell us on that working out.

But this ended up having some real stakes and a satisfying resolution to it on top of the neat and well-drawn setting and vivid characters, so I'll say overall that I had a good experience reading it and would be intrigued to check out the author's next book.

My thanks to Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the ARC.

Thank you Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the eARC of Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen! All opinions in this review are my own.

I have mixed feelings about Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen. At first, I was loving the murder mystery and it help up for a least three-quarters of the book. I had no idea who to suspect as the murderer and the new information being added kept me guessing! Unfortunately (and I'm not sure if this was just a me issue), I found the last quarter of the book kind of confusing. I had a hard time keeping the members of The Club straight throughout the book and didn't realize how important that would be at the end when they were flinging accusations at each other left and right. Overall, I did enjoy Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen and would be open to rereading it in order to try to understand more.

I was reading this book and the voices and the characters were like those from a Bogart movie. The glamour and the sleaze, the limelight and the darkness.
It's lighter than a noir even if there's some elements. I enjoyed the well researched historical background and the well plotted characters.
The solid mystery kept me guessing.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen by Sarah James

I received a free digital copy of Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen by Sarah James from Net Galley to read and review. My thanks to the author , editor and publisher for the enjoyable novel.
This mystery novel would appeal to anyone who loves old movies, watching the Turner Classic Movie channel and reading Hollywood behind the scenes stories. You know, the “ What is ( insert star’s name here) really like” gossip. One of the fun things about this book is attaching real names to the persons in the book. Might the snarky/ witty concert pianist “ Henry Hibbert” be based on Oscar Levant? And the gossipy movie reviewer , revealer of the secret lives of Hollywood, Fiona Ferris- is that Louella? If the reader is old enough and/ or a reader of Star biographies , this book will be devoured. It is a sweet read of a mystery, full of historical scenery and the aura of glamour laced with fear of being only one flop away from dropping off the A list.
Summary: Anne Laurence has a hit Broadway play on her hands. A good review by Fiona Ferris, with glowing plaudits for the stars, Beverly and Adam Cook, means profits and a long run. Anne, along with her very close, one can say , intimate apartment sharing friends,Beverly and Adam, are in heaven. Until, that is, Beverly and Adam get a contract at a major Hollywood studio. Even the dearest of friendships cannot withstand that allure. Beverly and Adam go off to Glitz city, leaving a devastated Anne in a nearly empty apartment with an empty life. The play closes. Anne hits the skids, emotionally and financially. The one dark day she gets an offer to go to Hollywood to write an adaption of her play for the screen.
Anne eventually encounters her former partners at the Hollywood Canteen, which is Hollywood’s effort to provide a place where stars can “do their part in the war effort” , with attendant publicity , of course, by hosting a venue for enlisted men to relax. They can dance with starlets while being served soft drinks and sandwiches by the likes of Bette Davis and Rita Hayworth.
In this atmosphere, an uneasy truce exists between Anne and a jolly clique of calling themselves “ Ambassador Club.” Screen writers, stars, wits , musicians en- mixed, their main recreation is drinking and insulting each other. All in good fun, until the universally feared and hated Fiona Ferris is murdered.
The book is a pretty good mystery by a author who has done her research into the studio star system where the big studios controlled every aspect of their hired help, when even crimes could be covered up and fall guys set up to take the rap. Anne , is likeable, although, it seems way over her head when she finds herself immersed in the shark- laden waters of Hollywood. Is Anne going to be the fall guy? Read on and enjoy.
Minor quibbles: It can be a bit hard to keep all the inter-relationships straight, not to mention the conflicting alibis, but it is a good book, one recommended to those who enjoy a clean mystery set in the Golden Years of Hollywood. You know, this just might make for a good movie….
Rated Suitable for all readers.

Prefacing this review; I normally don’t read books set historically back in time. This was enjoyable for not taking place during “current” times. I felt the overall story was good, the murder mystery appeal & the “being ahead of their times”. The sub stories of the characters, Annie included and the multi dimensions of them was interesting, including the “taboo” of their sexualities in the mid 1900’s. I learned about the actual Hollywood Canteen & the purpose. I rated the book as I did because I wanted the action to go a little quicker, but it was a slowww burn. The old school Hollywood glamour was definitely captured.. I just wanted more.
Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

I was so excited to read this book but there were many things that, unfortunately, didn't work for me. I was immediately drawn in to the premise: 1940s Hollywood glamour, a murder mystery, an amateur-ish sleuth. It had it all, but the execution just didn't draw me in. I felt like there were too many side plotlines/stories that interrupted the flow of the story and took away from the main storyline of trying to solve the mystery of Fiona's murder. I liked the characters, the banter amongst the group of friends was sharp and witty, and Annie was a smart, take charge FMC. Things just dragged on a bit too much for my personal liking.

Thank you Sourcebook Landmarks and Netgalley for the advanced digital copy!

Annie Laurence arrives in 1943 Hollywood still hurting from a devastating break-up. A playwright with an acclaimed Broadway murder mystery under her belt, she comes expecting to write similar scripts for Pacific Pictures, and perhaps to show the people who crushed her how much they lost by leaving her behind. Her new bosses, of course, have other plans, assigning her to dream up a script for a musical with an inane title instead.

Less mortifyingly, Pacific Pictures also expects her to volunteer at the Hollywood Canteen, the movie industry’s glamorous contribution to the war effort. Open to only servicemen – so no officers and no civilians – the Canteen offers free entertainment, dancing and food to the thousands who come through its doors before being shipped off to fight.

It’s while navigating the Canteen that Annie falls in with the members of the Ambassador’s Club, as they call themselves. The club is more or less headed by Fiona Farris, the acerbic film and stage critic who’s destroyed hundreds of careers. She’d actually given Annie’s play a decent review, even if she’d inserted an insinuation as to the scandalous truth about Annie’s last relationship. Wouldn’t it catch the eye of the people who hurt her, Annie thinks, if she’s seen being chummy with Fiona now?

Fiona turns out to be less horrifying in person than she is as a critic, though her inner circle definitely shares her enthusiasm for barbed wit and selective secret-keeping. To her own surprise, heartsick, intelligent, lonely Annie finds herself fitting in perfectly with her new friends. So when Fiona drops dead one night while at the Canteen, Annie feels genuinely motivated to find out who killed her. After the police rule Fiona’s death a suicide, at least half of the Ambassador’s Club angrily agree with Annie, though the others just as bitterly demand that they let it go:

QUOTE
It was all escalating like this, I realized, because Fiona wasn’t here. Fiona would say something so perfect, so devastating, so <i>mean</i> it would shut everyone up. Then Terry could change the subject, and we’d all move on. But Fiona wasn’t there, so the only way I could see to get this group to function again was to be her myself.

“Look, folks, I’ve only spent a few evenings with the Ambassador’s Club, and that’s been enough to make me want to kill myself,” I said. “The point isn’t if Fiona <i>could</i> have [committed suicide]; it’s if she did. Don’t you want to know for sure? Because I do.”
END QUOTE

Getting everyone onboard is the easy part. Things get tricky when their investigation into Fiona’s death puts a target on all their backs. Soon enough, Annie is accused of Fiona’s murder herself. Will Annie be able to emerge unscathed from the seedy underbelly of Hollywood, a hotbed of corruption dedicated to preserving a wholesome image at all costs in order to keep the profits coming in, or will she become just another victim of a devious killer protected by the system?

As charming and clever as its protagonist, this murder mystery had me completely hooked, even as its emotional impact destroyed me utterly. While the particulars were quite different, it felt very much as if Sarah James had ripped my heart out of my chest and squeezed the contents out across these pages, exposing my pain for all the world to see in the form of Annie’s grief. Ms James pointedly talks about the hypocrisy of conservative morality in order to drive home the point that secrecy and intolerance have always made things worse, not better, benefiting only the cowardly and the selfish. Here, for example, the female members of the club are lamenting the choices of their friend Victor:

QUOTE
“He’s never going to get over the man if he keeps going home with him,” said June.

“He doesn’t want to get over him,” Terry said. “He knows he <i>should</i> want that, so he acts like he <i>does</i> want that, but what he really wants is for Henry to leave his wife and come back to him and they’ll be just like it was.”

“That’s pathetic,” I said, perhaps to cover the part of me that wanted the exact same thing from my exes. “Henry’s never going to do that. Why would he? He’s getting everything he wants right now: the respectable married life and Victor at his beck and call.”
END QUOTE

Last Night At The Hollywood Canteen is smart, sensitive and historically accurate, with humor that is right up my alley but might possibly veer too esoteric for others (as it winningly points out about itself in at least one self-deprecating passage.) One Haydn joke in particular had me laughing like a classical-music-loving hyena. I rather wish that this novel was only the first in an ongoing series of the Ambassador Club’s adventures, but it ends perfectly as is, and is one of my favorite books of the year so far.

When despised film critic Fiona Farris is found dead in the Canteen kitchen, murder mystery playwright Annie realizes any one of the Canteen's luminous volunteers could be guilty of the crime. To catch the killer, Annie falls in with Fiona's friends, a bitter and cynical group―each as uniquely unhappy in their life and career as Annie is in hers―that call themselves the Ambassador's Club.

This was a great historical mystery with a spunky female lead. I really enjoyed it. It was well-written and easily digestible.

Okay to say I'm obsessed with this book would be an understatement!! WOW!

It's 1943 and Annie Laurence moves to Hollywood after a tough breakup, to hopefully start a new life writing for the movie industry.

However, things start to turn sour whenever her new "friend" and movie critic, who seems to have had a little bit of dirt on everyone, is found murdered.

Suddenly everyone in the Ambassador's Club group is a suspect.
A brick gets thrown in Annie's apartment, things start to go missing and suddenly the murder gets pinned on Annie.

It turns out that solving a murder in real life is definitely a lot harder than writing one for the stage.

Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen is one hell of a drama filled ride and I give nothing but high praises for theis book.

I love this time period. I love Hollywood glamour. And I love the idea behind this entire book. The mystery mixed with the glamour I love really sucked me in and I found myself flying though this book in just a few days. Of course, bummed that it was already over. I'm hoping this won't be the last we see of the Hollywood Canteen!

Book review: Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen- Sarah James


Annie Laurence is a New York City playwright who finds herself without a job. Her highly acclaimed murder mystery comes to an abrupt end when her co-stars, and “closest friends,” Adam and Beaverly leave together to pursue brighter lights. On the brink of “losing it” and feeling sorry for herself, Annie gets a call from Pacific Studios. She’s offered a job as a screen writer, and three days later she finds herself starting over - in Hollywood! Shortly after arriving, Annie meets the exceptionally critical gossip columnists and film critic, Fiona Farris. Annie is befriended by Fiona and her circle of friends, who call themselves the “Ambassador’s Club.” But all is not well, one night Fiona is found murdered in the Hollywood Canteen. In a town where everyone has secrets, someone has made sure Fiona would never write again. When it becomes evident that the police are not going to investigate Fiona’s death, Annie turns amateur sleuth. But has she now put a target on her back?

Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen is a quick paced murder mystery. Set in 1940’s Hollywood, a golden era for big movie studios and gossip columnists who could make or break careers. Read it for a nostalgic trip back to a time of big bands and GI blues, for its colorful characters, witty banter, scandalous love affairs or just for the murder mayhem.


My thanks to @The_SarahJames, @Bookmarked and @NetGalley for the gift of this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The 40's, Hollywood glamour and murder. This historical mystery transports the reader to the night life of movie stars during the golden age of Hollywood. A time where they partied all night long, and competition was fierce for major movie contracts. One bad review could cost you your career or in this case your life. This whodunit had me guessing till the end with its edgy story.

This was a quick-read and its cast of characters were fun.

Thank you Sourcebooks for the complimentary copy.

Protagonist Annie was happily living in New York where she is working as a playwright. Her most recent show to open is a murder mystery with the stars of the production being her two closest friends. They are a couple and Annie is involved with both of them in what feels like a romantic way. The three are quite comfortable with one another until Hollywood comes calling for the actors. Crushingly, they leave Annie behind although she eventually makes her way to Hollywood as well.

Annie has gotten a job with Pacific pictures as a screenwriter, albeit one with a bit of writer’s block. When not struggling to write, Annie goes to the Hollywood Canteen as a volunteer and also is swept up in the wake of critic Fiona and her circle; they seem like a kind of snarky Algonquin circle. When Fiona is found dead, the plot moves forward.

This book has a terrific setting in the Hollywood of the 1940s. It also has a parade of famous names that readers will enjoy.

Will Annie be able to solve a real murder as easily as she could write about one as a playwright? Turn the pages of this title to find out.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for this title. All opinions are my own.

Set up during WW2 for servicemen and women heading overseas, the Hollywood Canteen was an entertainment centre run by volunteers from the entertainment industry from October 1942 until November 1945. Hugely popular, it offered free food, and entertainment from comedy to big bands as well as the chance to maybe meet or dance with a famous celebrity.

Playwright Annie Laurence, has arrived in Hollywood in 1943 to work as a screenwriter at Pacific Pictures, and joined the ranks of volunteers at the Canteen, making sandwiches and dancing. There she meets theatre and film critic Fiona Farris, generally despised by all in the industry for her caustic but witty reviews. However, she had once given a play of Annie’s on Broadway an unusually positive review, although she did hint at Annie’s ménage à trois with her leading actor and actress, something they had kept secret for years.

Soon Annie has fallen in with Fiona’s group of friends, who call themselves the Ambassador’s Club, each bitter and unhappy in some way about their careers. When Fiona dies from imbibing poison, the police investigate to determine if she committed suicide or was murdered, with each member of the club treated as suspects, especially Annie who used the same unusual source of poison in her Broadway play. This makes Annie determined to expose the killer, if she wants to avoid ending up in jail for murder.

With a background of the glamour and dazzle of Hollywood, this is an engaging murder mystery. Although life is not all glitter and glamour for those working in the industry and life on the film set is shown to be hard work for all involved. Heavy drinking is almost obligatory and the use of drugs is rife to keep actors and writers alert and productive during the day and switched off at night. Private lives are also strictly controlled by the studios with fake marriages and ‘wholesome’ hobbies.

Although the novel gives a good sense of what the Canteen was like, we only really see it through the small numbers of characters who form the Ambassadors Club. I would have enjoyed more historical context about how WW2 affected the lives of those living in LA and how the servicemen and women felt about visiting the Canteen. It would also have been interesting to have more vignettes of stars who performed there. Nevertheless, this is a fun and entertaining murder mystery set against a fabulous backdrop.

LOVED THE HOLLYWWOD SETTING, BUT WASN'T CAPTURED BY THE MYSTERY

I absolutely love Golden Age Hollywood and binge watch all the old movies, so that was definitely the thing that first spoke to me about this book. I really liked the setting and seeing of the old stars - such as Bette Davis and Mickey Rooney - figuring as characters certainly helped the matter. The characters were also quite interesting. They are a group of snide, sarcastic and self-deprecating friends, who find themselves caught up in a murder. However, the central piece - the murder mystery - did not really manage to capture my attention. I was never really invested in the mystery or Annie's attempts at solving it.

Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen is set in old Hollywood, and follows Annie, a writer, as she struggles to solve a murder within her new friend group. When her polyamorous relationship splits so the married couple can move to the west coast and become movie stars, Annie goes down a spiral of self-loathing and depression. An offer to come write for movies has her moving to the west coast as well, where she gets in with a new friend group and gets friendly with the most ruthless reviewer in town.

When that reviewer dies from a poisoned drink, the police assume it was a suicide, but Annie knows better. She investigates the crime herself, eventually bringing her and her friends under suspicion for the murder. In her search for the truth, Annie just might put herself right in the killer's path.

I gave Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen a four star rating because I enjoyed it and would recommend it to a friend, but I wouldn't read it again. There are a lot of things I enjoyed about this story, including the setting, queer representation, and characters. I thought each character was nuanced and believable, which lent a sense of realism to the entire piece.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own opinions.

Sarah James, you have written what will very likely end up being my favorite book of the year. It really has everything you could want from à book, mystery, non experienced crime solvers, betrayal, large consumption of alcohol, a cast of old Hollywood outsiders, and romance.

If you want to read something fun and unique, you found it with Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen.

This was a wildly entertaining historical mystery. With characters that are fresh and unexpected and snappy dialogue, this one is quickly paced with plenty of suspects. The drama of old Hollywood, and the sneaky ways of the studio system are also present. Very enjoyable to read and I thought the mystery was solidly crafted.

Thank you to the author, Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a fascinating look into the Hollywood studio system in the 1940s, with a cast reminiscent in some ways of the Algonquin Round Table, although there were some very stark stereotypes among them in this iteration. To make things interesting, there's a murder mystery thrown in, and the seamy side of the film business certainly comes through as well. I had no idea the Hollywood Canteen was a real thing, and the background given by the author at the end of the book was illuminating and not a little disturbing, in that it became clear how much it was (and I'm sure still is in the film business) about centering themselves and disregarding the world outside. The book in total was a tiny bit too long, it could have easily lost 50-75 pages and made for a smoother narrative - but overall well worth the read.

If you like film noir classics like Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon and more, you might like Last Night at the Hollywood Canteen. Set during World War II in Hollywood, the book gives off all the noir feelings those classic movies had.

If you want to know what it was like in Hollywood during the war, this novel gives off all the vibes. The Hollywood Canteen was run by local studios and movie stars themselves because Los Angeles was the ship-off port for men headed to the Pacific war front. Annie, the main character, is a playwright/screenwriter who has just made her way to Hollywood, following her “close friends.” a married couple who were actors in Annie’s most successful murder mystery plays. I say friends because the throuple lived life clandestinely in New York, but one gossip columnist made references to the “unusual” relationship the group had. In order to squash the rumors, the couple quickly signs a deal with a movie studio and leave Annie behind, but she soon has her own deal and heads west.

While in Hollywood, Annie falls into the circle of friends surrounding the very same gossip columnist who tried to out her relationship, Fiona Figg. Fiona has plenty of hangers-on of misfits called the Ambassador’s Club. One night at the Hollywood Canteen, Fiona is found dead. Soon it comes out how she died, and it just so happens it was an unusual way of poisoning someone, the same way Annie wrote about in one of her hit plays. Naturally, Annie becomes a suspect.

The rest of the book follows Annie and her friends as they investigate Fiona’s murder to clear her name and find the real culprit. She has a tendency to jump to conclusions every time a new piece of evidence is unearthed, but on the whole, I enjoyed the investigation and the quirks of the Ambassador’s Club. If you pay attention close enough, you’ll figure out who the murderer was, but you can still enjoy the mystery. A solid 4-star book!

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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