Published: March 04, 2011
Words: 84,180 (approximate)
Language: English
ISBN: 9781458101266

Short description

For History major Carolyn Madore, leaving school to work for the Pawskonsett Island Artifact Retrieval Company was an easy decision. After all, the company has had remarkable success recovering antiquities of the lost, misplaced and "no one is sure they ever really existed" variety. She didn't realize her new duties would include treasure hunting, time travel and solving the occasional murder.

Extended description

“The first response you get when you tell a person you’ve lost something is always, ‘where did you last see it?’ We not only go to where an object was last seen, but to when it was last seen, then simply trace how it was lost and where it ended up. Clients will not be billed for hours spent solving any murders that might pop up along the way.” – Oliver Weatherby, retired Lobsterman and Co-Founder of the Pawskonsett Island Artifact Retrieval Company

Gus Milton and Carolyn Madore are two former grad students who now work for the afore mentioned PIARC; a secretive and reasonably profitable company headquartered on a remote island off the coast of Maine. Despite being run by a pair of retired lobstermen with no education beyond high school, the company has had remarkable success finding histories lost treasures. It helps that they have access to a time machine, cleverly disguised as a rather cramped mop closet.

While tracing a valuable diamond from 1920’s Western Au.. (Read more) “The first response you get when you tell a person you’ve lost something is always, ‘where did you last see it?’ We not only go to where an object was last seen, but to when it was last seen, then simply trace how it was lost and where it ended up. Clients will not be billed for hours spent solving any murders that might pop up along the way.” – Oliver Weatherby, retired Lobsterman and Co-Founder of the Pawskonsett Island Artifact Retrieval Company

Gus Milton and Carolyn Madore are two former grad students who now work for the afore mentioned PIARC; a secretive and reasonably profitable company headquartered on a remote island off the coast of Maine. Despite being run by a pair of retired lobstermen with no education beyond high school, the company has had remarkable success finding histories lost treasures. It helps that they have access to a time machine, cleverly disguised as a rather cramped mop closet.

While tracing a valuable diamond from 1920’s Western Australia to the Golden Age of Hollywood, Gus and Carolyn inadvertently leave their time machine behind the gates of the Warner Bros. studio lot; stranding them in the past. Their only friend is Errol Flynn; but the married star is having a fling with a young actress named Lorna and the scandal wary studio bosses have banned Flynn from the lot. When Lorna turns up murdered, the only way for Gus and Carolyn to return home is to find out who killed her and get Flynn back into the good graces of the studio.
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Tags

hollywood, murder, mystery, historical, detective, 1930s, time travel

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Reviews

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Review by: Jonathan Caws-Elwitt on Nov. 28, 2011 :
I ran across this novel by chance here. The blurb led me to the sample, and after tearing through the sample I purchased the book. It's witty, engaging, and gripping, well paced and gracefully written. I couldn't stop reading. This doesn't happen to me very often--hence this review of a book I'd never even heard of until a few days ago.

As a reader, my specialty is witty books, not time-travel books, so perhaps readers more experienced in the time-travel subgenre will feel I'm stating the obvious in comparing this book to Connie Willis's To Say Nothing of the Dog, which I read a number of years ago and enjoyed immensely. Catch a Falling Starlet is similar in general premise and mood. I don't mean to imply that Lyons's book reads like a rehash of Willis's--it's a completely different story, and by making the comparison I'm merely saying I was delighted to find another book of this nature, and I recommend it to others who finished TSNOTD and wished there was something else like it.

I do think future readers will benefit if the book is given another proofreading pass for a corrected edition. I'm not one to draw attention to the occasional typo or error, but this book has a large number of such things such as routine typos; incorrect words absent-mindedly typed where it's clear a different word was intended; little mismatches regarding plurals, possessives, or agreement; ending quotation marks placed after the wrong word; and even an instance or two where a character's name is spelled wrong. It was clear to me from the polished quality of the writing that these were just careless mistakes and not any indication of a lack in skill... and because the narrative flowed so smoothly and compellingly, the errors didn't stop me from devouring the book (and giving it five stars). But I think a book of this quality deserves to be cleared of those blemishes.
(reviewed within a week of purchase)

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