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THE PRINCE OF BEVERLY HILLS takes place outside of Stuart Woods's respective Stone Barrington/Holly Barker/Will Lee novel cycles, and as such might be missed or ignored by readers who otherwise follow Woods's work. This would be unfortunate, as this is one of the more noteworthy works of an author who, though occasionally inconsistent and uneven in his work, is also unjustly underrated.
In the years prior to World War II, Hollywood had a love affair with the crime film. This occurred to some extent as the result of the work of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. But besides Nick and Nora, and Philip Marlowe, there were other series (Tom Conway's Falcon comes immediately to mind) as well as stand-alone films that are all but forgotten now. THE PRINCE OF BEVERLY HILLS has the feel of one of those movies, almost from beginning to end.
It begins in 1939. Rick Barron has been newly busted down from his position as a Beverly Hills robbery and homicide detective to street patrolman as the result of incurring the wrath of his commanding officer's niece. Barron has a canny ability to discern the right moves at the right time. This, combined with a pragmatic attitude, holds him in good stead when he witnesses an accident involving actor Clete Barrow, who is in the middle of filming a major motion picture for Centurion Studios. Though the world of motion pictures is far removed from Barron's life, he knows how such matters work, and when he quietly gets Barrow out of a jam, his savvy abilities attract the attention of Eddie Harris, Executive Vice-President at Centurion. Harris almost immediately hires Barron to be Centurion's new Director of Security. Barron's job is to keep a lid on matters that might pose potential problems for Centurion. His most immediate task is to keep Barrow out of trouble and on the movie set on time.
But Barron has more than Barrow on his plate. Centurion has attracted the interest of organized crime, which very much wants to become involved in the highly successful motion picture industry. The Mob is a suitor that Centurion wants to rebuff, but gently, in order to avoid labor problems, given the ties of organized crime to the labor unions. Barron, however, has developed some personal animosity with Chick Stampano, a dangerous underling of the notorious Bugsy Siegel. Stampano has a dangerous appetite for beautiful women, and his attraction to movie actresses --- particularly those under contract with Centurion --- puts him on a collision course with Barron, a situation that is aggravated when Barron himself becomes involved with one of Centurion's actresses.
Woods keeps the story moving from the first page to the last, as Barron's good turn at the beginning of the novel continues to pay off for him. While there is almost a fairy tale element to the story of Barron's ascendancy, it is not at all far-fetched; more often than not, this is the way things work. Woods also has a fine eye for description and a keen ear for dialogue, resulting in a narrative that flows like a script. One can almost see the film roll by, page by page.
The only flaw here is the ending, which suffers a bit from the "okay, time to wrap this up" syndrome that occasionally plagued authors from Chandler to Heinlein to…well, Woods. Don't let that stop you though from reading THE PRINCE OF BEVERLY HILLS. The journey more than makes up for any disappointment you might feel from the abruptness of the arrival at the destination.
--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub
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