Chicago Review Press

Echoing closely the glitz and the sinister undercurrents of The Great Gatsby, the blonde silent movie actress, Thelma Todd, was just 29, when she died in mysterious circumstances in December 1935.  She was found by her housekeeper in a garage in Hollywood, owned by her lover, film director Roland West and his wife, the actress, Jewel Carmen.  The inquest concluded that her death was “accidental”, caused by inhaling her car’s exhaust fumes.  The garage was 271 steps above her newly-opened and fashionable Thelma Todd’s Sidewalk Café.  In this intriguing and gripping investigation, Michelle Morgan, author of several major books on Marilyn Monroe and Hollywood, proves that Thelma had been murdered.  But by who?  Through her special talent of discovering new sources of information and interviewees who have never divulged their inside knowledge previously, Michelle gets to the definitive solution of  who killed Thelma Todd.