Books like Design for Dying — picked by fans

I love Martin Turnbull’s writing. He truly knows how to conjure up Hollywood’s Golden Period. He’s gained popularity for his Garden on Sunset series, about the Garden of Allah apartment complex on Sunset Boulevard. However, he has begun to branch out with other series and also with standalone books. 

This book was his second standalone, about producer/boy wonder Irving Thalberg, and it is a remarkable achievement. The characters really hop off the page, including Thalberg, Marion Davies, Norma Shearer, and others. 

The best part for me was how Turnbull really brought Charles Laughton to life, making him incredibly human and letting us glimpse the tortured homosexual behind the portly actor. 

As someone who adores all things Pickford (and has written about Mary’s sister-in-law, Olive Thomas), there’s no way I couldn’t include this book, which covers the association between silent star Mary Pickford and her scenarist Frances Marion. 

I love the dynamic between these two powerful women, and Benjamin does a good job of establishing their relationship. There is a lot to love about this book: the writing, the dialog, and the detail. I love this book!

My only quibble is the picture they used for the front cover. I’d have picked it up long before I did if they’d actually used a picture of Mary and Frances because I would have recognized instantly who it was about.  

I love all aspects of Los Angeles from approximately 1911 to around 1950. This doesn’t just include the actors, directors, and studios but also those working behind the scenes who made the movies come to life. This book involves the writers who composed the scenarios (the early name for screenplays) that ended up becoming the films made by the studios. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald was most famous for his novels in the 1920s, but his personal problems (a wife committed to an expensive mental hospital and a daughter to raise) caused him to have to look for work as a writer for MGM, but he was not successful due to his drinking. 

O’Nan delves masterfully into Fitzgerald’s complicated relationship with gossip columnist Sheilah Graham and his alcoholism, and it addresses his multiple terrifying heart attacks.

This book truly belongs among the top picks for Hollywood literature. 

This is the oldest book on the list, from 1979, but it is such a worthwhile read.

Garson Kanin wrote Born Yesterday, and was married to Ruth Gordon, of Harold and Maude fame. His story of BJ Farber, a Forrest Gump type of character in early Hollywood, is chock full of juicy details. 

The dialog is wonderful and addresses the Scarlett O’Hara War, Gilbert and Garbo, and Marilyn Monroe (although I personally think Monroe has been covered to death at this point).

My favorite scene is the catfight between southern actresses Tallulah Bankhead and Miriam Hopkins during a dinner party scene as the search for Scarlett continues: “I declare your little brother is cute as paint.”

Detective Renée Ballard is a woman I hate to love. She sleeps during the day in a tent on the beach–who needs a solid roof over your head when you’re working graveyard for the L.A.P.D.–and occasionally shags the lifeguard. She is a loner, super smart, super tough, touchy, relentlessly driven, bitchy. What’s not to like?

This book got pretty scary. I like to be scared, and there are three more in the series.

I love realistic heroes who are fallible yet, to their core, have a sense of morals. Throw in the verisimilitude of police procedurals (or military), plus a good mystery, and you’ve got me. Author Michael Connelly has juxtaposed an aging main character, retired LA Detective Harry Bosch, with a younger LA detective, Renée Ballard. In the old-school, patriarchal LAPD, Ballard had quite a challenge conducting the detective work she was passionate about.

I’m impressed with the three-dimensional characters of the two generations, each equally dedicated to getting justice in the cases they’re working on. Connelly's Bosch is far from perfect, and Ballard, the rising next-gen, are two characters I am compelled to follow.

Nigeria is the largest country in Africa and is filled with conflicting and contrasting customs, rituals, and institutions that have tentacles that reach deep into its modern society. I find it hard to close a gripping psychological thriller. Still, in this book, even Philip Taiwo, the criminal psychologist sent to investigate the murders of three college students, has psychological problems of his own that have to be addressed. 

I love books that use the psychology of human behavior as the basis to unravel a crime. In this book, I glimpsed a sector of Nigerian society I didn’t know existed. Kayode’s book was filled with heart-thumping intrigue and so many twists and turns that I couldn’t stop listening.

I love a legal mystery/thriller and this one had me engrossed. While the courtroom drama was gripping, it was the backstory and the Assistant DA’s personal involvement in the trial that implicated his own son in a horrific murder that riveted me.

The final twist made my jaw drop.

I can’t even tell you how much I love Aunt Ginny in Libby Klein’s Poppy McAllister Mystery series! She is an absolute hoot. While I love the whole series, the first introduction to Aunt Ginny in this book remains my favorite. 

Poppy is newly widowed and a grief-stricken disaster when she receives an invitation to her high school reunion. She heads home to Cape May and her eccentric Great Aunt Ginny’s house. As they do in cozy mysteries, a murder happens, and Poppy and Aunt Ginny are on the case.

Poppy and her aunt’s relationship, paired with Aunt Ginny’s crazy antics, always leaves me wiping tears of mirth out of my eyes. Such a fun read!

This book is everything I love—an atmospheric setting, a fiercely independent heroine, and a slow-burning partnership filled with tension and intrigue. Charlotte Sloane’s sharp wit and refusal to conform had me hooked from the start.

I devoured this book in a single weekend, completely absorbed in the richly drawn world of Regency London and the dark secrets lurking beneath its surface. I love mysteries that blend history, strong characters, and intricate plotting, and this one delivered all of that and more.