What a disappointment this one was. Casey Sherman is a great writer, and very adept at the true crime genre, but something happened here that just didn't make this one work. I'm not sure if he thought he had more of a scoop on the murder that didn't end up panning out, or what - but this felt like trying to wring the last little bits out of a used up wash cloth. There's just nothing there, there. Yes, Lana Turner is kind of a tragic Old-Hollywood figure. Yes, it seems likely that she let her daughter take the fall for a murder she committed. But there's just no real meat to this story, and nothing to sink your teeth into that felt new and different and revelatory. Recommend only for Lana Turner fanatics, as the general interest true crime story falls so, so flat.

I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. thank you netgalley.

if you are going to write a book titled: a murder in hollywood - I would think the murder would happen far before the 82% mark. this book was really just a look into lana turners life and the murder was a subsection of it. hell, the the man murdered isn’t even the MMC in the book. that honor goes to his boss and crime lord cohen. overall a very disappointing and boring read

A true crime book that explores the story of Lana Turner and her connection to the mob that resulted in a death.

I wanted to like this one more because it sounded so interesting and I didn’t know much about the story. However, I think Sherman wanted to write two different books that somehow merged into one. There was so much mob backstory that didn’t feel relevant. this would’ve been better perhaps as a series of shorter stories about the mob in Hollywood.


I received my copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was intriguing and kept me on the edge of my seat waiting to find out what would happen next.

An Enlightening and Heartbreaking Story

I hate to ask this but was every man back in the day a pedophilic creep? There were so many moments that I audibly gasped in disgust, my heart going out to poor Lana and all of these Hollywood starlets that had to put up with this abhorrent behavior. It truly makes me sick to my stomach.

I didn’t really know much about Lana Turner before reading this book, but I felt so bad for her! Not to say that she was perfect by any means, but it’s obvious why she was a tortured soul as her life is incredibly tragic. I love learning about old Hollywood, though sadly the more that comes to light the dimmer the gold glistens as we see that not all is what it has seemed.

I really liked the shorter chapters and overall flow of this book. The author made this feel more like I was reading a novel and not a nonfiction. Since I did not know much about Lana Turner, I found this subject interesting and the read immersive. With not a lot of fluff, this author gets down to the nitty-gritty, keeping the facts concise and to the point, and skimming through years in just a few paragraphs. I personally love this as it keeps the pace snappy and the progression perfection.

This book was great, it felt fresh and not like anything else I've read lately. It kept me intrigued all the way through, I didn't want to put it down.

This books tells the story of both Lana Turner and Johnny Stampanato, and how they ended up together and the aftermath of that relationship that ended with one of them dead.

Im a big fan of this kind of books, i really enjoy true crime. I was really expecting to love it, but I think half of the book was unnecesary, at least the Stampanato part.

We are told about all his life in the mob, what he did before Lana and none of that was really relevant to what the book says its about. The Lana bits were more interesting, and they make sense since it tells us about how she grew up, which allows us to understand why she would end up in a relationship with someone like him, how she didnt notice things at the beginning that maybe someone that had a healthy and loving childhood would've noticed, but for her these things were natural when they should never be. I just want to clarify that its always easier to notice these things when from afar, and times were different so maybe things we notice today weren't as noticeable then.

I think that about a third of the book shouldn't have been there cause its not relevant to the story of the murder.

Also, it was strange to read it like a novel by someone who wasn't there, adding information like movements, gasps and stuff like that.

Having said that, i could notice how well investigated everything was. I flew through the last half of the book, but I also think that the trial parts weren't as detailed as the rest of the story. We have so much detail about their lives before knowing each other but then we get to the trial and it feels like it was written in a hurry to finish the book.

I would recommend it to people that is interested in how Hollywood was in the 1940s and 50s, and those getting into true crime books for the first time.

A Murder in Hollywood is billed as nonfiction, yet it reads as a poorly written dime-store novel. The author creates sensationalist imagined dialogue, which doesn’t belong in a book claiming to be NONfiction. If you want a novel about an Old Hollywood murder that focuses on sexual exploitation, then you might like this. If you’re looking for an investigative, fact-based telling of an Old Hollywood murder, this one is a hard pass.

Thanks go to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

A shocking story of he murder of Lana Turners boyfriend Johhnny Stompanato. It is amazing that such an old murder was so interesting and so written seamlessly. It brought back so many memories of the trial and newspaper articles whch I had read at the time. It also explained so much about her daughter. and explained everything so easily.

Sherman did an incredible job of the book being well-researched with great attention to detail

What would you do for those you love most? For Cheryl Turner, the answer was simple, she would kill to protect her mother, even if that man was none of than a dangerous, abusive gangster. But is there more to the story? Casey Sherman travels back in time and pulls back the curtain on the lives of both mother and daughter. This book serves to not only delved into who really killed Johnny Stompanato, but into the complicated lives and relationships of both Lana and Cheryl. I enjoyed the retelling of this scandal, as I had already heard of it before. I do agree with the conclusions of the author, even though we will never truly know what exactly happened that night so many years ago.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for this ARC. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all views expressed are my own.

Delighted to highlighted this new release in "Going for Gold: 8 Oscar-Worthy Books," a round-up of new and notable Hollywood-themed titles in the Books section of Zoomer magazine. (see column and mini-review at link)

This beauty kept me company through jury duty and made it so much more…bareable. A little glamour, a little murder, always a good time.

If you like true crime or Hollywood stars, A Murder in Hollywood by Casey Sherman should be on your TBR.

Thanks to @netgalley and @sourcebooks for this Advanced Reader!
#bookreview #bookstagram #amurderinhollywood #caseysherman #sourcebooks #bookishlife #reading #bibliophile #bookphotography #bookrecommendations #instabooks #booknerd #truecrime #hollywoodcrime #nonfiction

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a readers copy of this book. My reviews never contain spoilers and are freely given.
Travel back in time to the Golden Age of Hollywood when stars like Frank Sinatra, Clark Gable, and Joan Crawford lit up movie screens. The arrival of crime bosses on the West Coast included figures like Bugsy Siegel, Mickey Cohen, and a Cohen bodyguard named Johnny Stompanato. The death of Stompanato has long been a question mark in Hollywood history. Who killed him? Famous mother or her teen daughter.
Well written and easy read. Thoroughly enjoyable trip back to the heyday of Tinsel Town.

An eye opening look into the dramatic life of Lana Turner. Turner was a product of the old Hollywood star making machine, which was far less glamorous than many believe. It is also the story of the original gangsters who ran the town. Turner’s life was rough from the beginning and it continued as she went from young starlet to jaded established actress. It’s a story filled with sex, violence, and ultimately murder.

This is a must read for those wanting an insider’s look into old Hollywood, the original gangsters, and the harsh reality in which they lived.

A Murder in Hollywood by Casey Sherman is a deep dive into a seedy time of Hollywood history where the world and people associated with organized crime intermixed with the entertainment industry.
The focus of the story is around the killing of gangster Johnny Stompanato in the home of actress Lana Turner, supposedly at the hands of Turner’s teenage daughter, Cheryl. To get to the sordid details leading up to the killing the author widens the story that is equally a history of the mob into the late 1950’s, as the writer does with Hollywood, providing an epic story that reads almost like fiction.
This reader only knew the surface elements around the Stompmanato killing, and I love how Sherman engaged me as I took a journey through this fine book into the darkness of the period. Not for the faint hearted this work presents rape, pedophelia and misogyny usually only hinted about around the period.
If you are a fan of true crime, mobsters and’/or Hollywood, Casey Sherman’s A Murder in Hollywood is an excellent read.

Wasn’t my favorite read, I found it a little slow, I wanted to like it a lot more. I did finish it and did not DNF but it took me a lot longer than usual. Just wasn’t for me.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC! As a huge fan of old Hollywood, I was really excited about this one.

Lana Turner has an incredible life story, beyond what happened with her daughter and Johnny Stomoanato, but I loved that this book really dove into each of their stories individually before their paths (and fates) intertwined.

I loved that the author took a narrative nonfiction approach to telling this story, and I can tell that it was incredibly well researched. Part of me wishes that it had gone farther into Turner and her daughter’s lives following the aftermath of the crime, but I digress.

I truly enjoyed reading this story, and I love the deep dive it sent me on (once again) with exploring the press articles from this time period. The author did such a great job that I’m very interested in reading more of their work, and I hope to see more old Hollywood stories from them!

A Murder in Hollywood by Casey Sherman is about the shocking 1958 case of movie star Lana Turner and her mobbed-up boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, and how their relationship ended at the point of a butcher’s knife. While it does dive a bit deeper into the mafia side of things than I would have liked, it’s very well-written in a fun, engaging style, and is meticulously researched.

Set in the dazzling past of Hollywood, the story of Lana Turner's rise to stardom is well told in this book. Apart from her acting career, her choices of the men in her life were difficult to understand and her involvement with mobster Johnny Stopanato resulted in abuse and ultimately the trial of her life. Well researched and recommended.

While it was well researched, I wish the author spent more time on Cheryl Crane instead of in Lana Turner.