Fallen Star

Fallen Star, by Allison Morse, is a brilliantly wrought cold case murder mystery; a gripping thrill-ride from start to finish. It was one of the rare books I just didn't want to put down. I had to finish! We follow Kate Bloom, sharing in her chilling childhood encounter during the prologue. This unfortunate event would shape Kate in many ways, from closing off her ability to trust others, especially men, to a fierce drive to promote females rights and fight against female objectification.

Flash-forward and we find Kate and her great-aunt looking at things in her recently deceased mother's garage, where they stumble across a crate that proves to contain old film footage once believed lost forever. This footage contains scenes from her grandmother, Gloria Reardon's, last movie, during the filming of which she was found murdered in her dressing room. No one was ever convicted of the crime, and the case had long gone cold. Til now.

Kate and her aunt engage the cooperation and assistance of Jarvis Benjamin, an important mover-and-shaker in the film industry, who knew Gloria Reardon, to aid in the restoration of the degraded film. Kate and her aunt hope restoring the film will shed light on Gloria’s death. Helping them is Dylan Nichols, a young up-and-coming director with a knack for film restoration. Shop is set up on Benjamin's property, and Kate and her aunt move in, unwilling to be far from the precious film fragments.

As the project progresses, and Kate’s obsession grows, she begins having visions of her grandmother, on the day of her death. They are snippets of the last hours of Gloria Reardon’s life, providing detail Kate would be unable to know without having been there. Between the visions and questions raised during the restoration, Kate begins a new investigation into her grandmother's murder. What she finds is a web of intrigue and deceit, hidden for decades.

In Fallen Star, Morse has woven a Gothic masterpiece that reflects the charm of the old films it discusses. There is mystery and intrigue with just a dash of the paranormal. The writing flows, drawing the reader into the story. It’s easy to feel for Kate, what she went through, and is going through, and to feel *with* her as the visions overtake her.

Highly recommended if you enjoy murder mysteries, paranormal drama, psychological suspense, the Agent Pendergast novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, or Conan Doyle's Sherlock stories.

Kate had just got through her mother's funeral. Her mother -Audrey had succumbed to cancer. The doorbell rang and Kate opened the door to her great Aunt Lillian who had been a commanding stage actress. But now Kate’s great aunt just looked old when did that happen? Lillian’s sister Gloria had become a star in the 1940’s.Kate had been fascinated with her grandmother. Gloria had been brutally murdered and her killer had not been brought to justice. While going through Glory’s things in the garage Kate found a missing film of her grandmother’s- Gloria that was believed to show the fight and possibly the murder of Gloria. Everyone had believed the film had been destroyed. Kate let her Aunt Lillian take the film even though she hadn’t been in Kate’s life much. But her great aunt Lillian had a plan Natalie was Kate’s friend . Kate had entered a film and in an hour the winner of the Herbert Collier Prize would be announced and Natalie was going with Kate to the announcing of the award. Kate was one of the five finalists. Natalie is the only person Kate had told that she had almost been raped at thirteen by a so called director. That was when Kate changed from wanting to be an actress to doing films. Then Kate bumped into a man who turned out to be a judge of the films from the graduate students. Kate didn’t win and placed third she was really disappointed. In a week Kate met up with her aunt about the film as she is determined to be a part of the team that restores it the film had been sent to her mother and when her mother passed it became hers so Kate felt. Then Dylan the man who Kate had bumped into and had been a judge was there he was a friend of her Aunt Lillian’s and had worked on restoring films and the one Kate found was very fragile and the work needed to be carefully done so as not to destroy the old film.Dylan had some secrets of his own and someone or thing seemed to be haunting Kate.Kate had frequent nightmares that seem to be telling her to leave. Kate wants to unravel the mystery of her grandmother’s murder. Gloria’s presence was still; felt by many people who had known and cared for her and were still alive. Kate seems to be the killer's next target.
I really loved this story and I loved the plot.I love how it shows how women were and are treated in Hollywood . I loved Kate’s strength. I didn’t want to put this down. I felt it had great action. I couldn’t wait to see what happened next. I loved the behind the scenes look at movie making. I loved the characters and the twist in this story and I highly recommend.