Review: The Doom List by Gerard O'Donovan

Synopsis: The Doom List - you'd rather be dead than be on it: the intriguing new 1920s mystery featuring Irish-born cop turned private investigator Tom Collins.

July, 1922. Newly-appointed 'movie czar' William H. Hays is about to arrive in town on a single-minded mission to clean up Hollywood. He is said to be compiling a list of 'undesirables' whom he plans to bar from screen work. They call it the Doom List.

With the industry in the grip of fear and paranoia, Hollywood's hottest young director Rex Ingram is determined that no hint of scandal should mar the premiere of his new movie, The Prisoner of Zenda, and hires private investigator Tom Collins, a fellow Irishman, with instructions to protect his leading lady's reputation at all costs. But, as Collins discovers, Barbara La Marr isn't the only member of the cast hiding a dangerous secret.

Meanwhile, a body is discovered in the Baldwin Hills to the south of the city. Could there be a connection? Against his better judgement, Collins is drawn into a case of scandal, forbidden love, blackmail . . . and cold-blooded murder.

This quite neatly follows on from "The Long Silence" which is set in February 1922 and has Tom investigating the disappearance of an actress with close links to the recently murdered director, William Desmond Taylor.

Hollywood 1922

Hollwood started out as a new land development in the 1880s.  It wasn't until 1910 that the first motion picture company - the Nestor Motion Picture Company- set up in Hollywood, which - unlike the East Coast where the majority of films were made - had ideal weather conditions and easy access to locations. The following year, four major film companies – Paramount, Warner Bros., RKO, and Columbia – had their studios in Hollywood, as did several minor companies and rental studios.

Rex Ingram

Tom is no longer attached to the studios as their in-house "fixer" - he has managed to open an office of his own, and through long time "friend" Fay Parker, he meets director Rex Ingram. Rex has just finished "The Prisoner of Zenda" for Metro Studios and is about to hit the publicity trail, whilst in the process of making yet another film, Black Orchids (renamed Trifling Women).

Barbara La Marr

However, his leading lady, Barbara La Marr is not the only one among his cast who has secrets they would much prefer to remain hidden, especially since moral crusader Will H Hays is on his way to clean up the fledgling Tinseltown.  An up and coming young Mexican star Ramon, rumoured to be the next Valentino, has problems of his own and Barbara asked Tom to help him out. Hollywood at this time had a burgeoning Mexican population, attracted by the closeness to the border and the multitude of new employment opportunities that arose from the movie industry.

Ramon Novarro

Hollywood had much to hide by way of scandals from secret pregnancies and abortions, drug and alcohol addiction, homosexuality, affairs, violence and murder.  Many stars burnt bright then faded back into obscurity; the lucky ones stuck around a little longer - it was the movie-going public who could make or break both a film and its stars, so the studios employed "fixers" to cover up an indiscretions and buy off silence.  Unfortunately, not everything could be swept under the carpet.

Will H Hays

In January 1922 Will H Hays was been appointed as chairman of Chairman of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) shortly after the organization's founding. The goal of the organization was to renovate the image of the movie industry in the wake of the scandal surrounding the alleged rape and murder of model and actress Virginia Rappe, of which film star Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle was accused, and amid growing calls by religious groups for federal censorship of the movies. Hiring Hays to "clean up the pictures" was, at least in part, a public relations ploy and much was made of his conservative credentials, including his roles as a Presbyterian deacon and past chairman of the Republican Party. However, at the time of our story, Hays had not yet made a name for himself or trouble for the studios - but the implied threat was very real for some. 

I really enjoyed this second trip into old Hollywood - silents films are still the rage, talkies are barely on the scene, actors and actresses were glamourous, scandalous, mysterious and sometimes murderous. The weaving of some of these famous Hollywood folk into the story gives it a bit more of an edge, and O'Donovan again uses events from this time as a backdrop.

Whilst it is not necessary to have read the first in this series, I would recommend that you do as there are references to previous events in this new outing - events which have never quite been closed.

In Tom Collins, ex-cop, ex-studio fixer, now private inquiry agent, O'Donovan gives us a character straight from the pages of the classic noir playbook - right up their with Spade, Hammer or Marlowe.  I enjoyed the style of storytelling, which provided enough plot twists and turns and diversions to keep the reader firmly planted on the edge of their seat.  You get a true sense of what it was like back in the early days of Hollywood and Los Angeles.

Check out
- Silent Era: The Silent Film Website
- Wikipedia: real life Hollywood Fixer, Eddie Mannix
- Atlas Obscura: the Fixers who buried Old Hollywood's biggest scandals