His books are published in over forty-five languages and in more than eighty countries, with 150 million copies sold worldwide. He describes the setting and history constantly throughout, using interesting anecdotes that strongly sarcastic and satirical. Before the next 24 hours are over, Archer finds a dead body in Eleanor’s home, gets attacked, stumbles into a probable smuggling ring, and finds his client has disappeared. Later, he sneaks into Lamb’s house and stumbles upon a body, then gets knocked out by an unseen assailant.

He’d bought it with his gambling winnings in Reno, and only a bullet hole in the windscreen post mars its perfection.

Dream Town by David Baldacci is as usual easy to read due to the wonderful way the author has with the language. Eleanor is afraid, thinking her life is in danger, hoping that Archer can discover the cause of what’s happening to her. The narrator, soon established as Elliot Chase, then zooms out to address the reader directly, introducing the players—most importantly movie star Lana Farrar. Many authors seem able to perfect a genre and work within it, even if they create a few series to keep readers entertained. The case draws Archer deeply into the Hollywood set as he crosses paths with actors, set designers and studio execs.

The investigation takes him from mob-ridden Las Vegas to glamorous Hollywood to the darkest corners of Los Angeles—a city where beautiful faces belong to cutthroat schemers, cops can be more corrupt than criminals . Baldacci adds in the proper political and social norms, and enough details from post-World War II to provide the depth and quality needed to portray the true historical context. Too many characters, too many descriptions, too much repetition, not enough plot or reason to make me give a hoot. If you're into a slower pace crime mystery with an old Hollywood glamour storyline then you'll probably enjoy this novel! Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.It doesn’t take long for the job to take a turn for the bizarre when Archer finds a man murdered in Lamb’s house and, to top it off, Lamb has disappeared off the face of the planet. David Baldacci is back with another Aloysius Archer story that pulls the reader back to the early 1950s. The darkness that all the glitz, glamour and picture perfect seafront and hillside properties manage to mask.

I understand that smoking was a widespread social custom, but seriously, not every single person was a chain driven smoker. Another great story … But it’s the last in the series of Aloysius but the scene is set for his next adventure.Though he isn't present in every scene, he conveys each piece of the story leading up to the murder as if he were an omniscient narrator, capable of accessing every character's interior perspective. He’ll almost die several times, and he’ll discover bodies and secrets from the canyons and beaches of Malibu and the luxurious mansions of Bel Air and Beverly Hills to the narcotics clubs of Chinatown. When he does, Eleanor is nowhere to be found, but there’s a body in the house, leaving Archer to wonder if she might have been responsible.