The Silver Blonde
In 1946 Los Angeles, at Silver Pacific studios, eighteen-year-old Clara Berg finally gets promoted to apprentice editor. That same evening, instead of celebrating with her crush, screenwriter Gil, she stumbles upon a dead body. At first, the murdered woman appears to be film star Barbara Bannon, but the victim is actually Bannon’s stand-in, Connie Milligan. Although Clara didn’t know Connie, she feels a kinship to her—ambitious young women in the mostly male Hollywood world. When police struggle with the case, Clara does her own investigating, which requires her to remember and come to terms with her childhood in late 1930s Germany. Meanwhile, with the war over, her parents are planning to return to Germany, and they expect her to return with them. Will she have to give up her Hollywood dreams?
Ross has crafted an excellent mystery. Was Bannon the actual target of the murderer? Are there any ghosts in Connie’s past? Gil is an obvious suspect whom Clara doesn’t want to consider. The uncovering of Clara’s own history, and how she struggles to claim her identity as a German-American, comes about when she begins researching German film writer and director Leni Riefenstahl whose time in Hollywood may be linked to the murder. Information about film production and the movies from this era are fun and interesting. Ross’s author notes separate fact from fiction—and I learned a lot! This is marketed as “young adult,” but I see The Silver Blonde appealing to anyone over the age of fourteen.
