"Fade to Black" By Michael Amedeo: Review/Giveaway

Review by J. M. Landon

Details at the end of this post on how to enter to win an ebook copy of the book and a link to purchase it. 

Fade to Black is the ultimate entertainment. You’ve got noir, Hollywood “B” movies, gangsters, and a hot love scene starting at the toes. It’s 1950, and Matt Moulton, a gumshoe detective, has moved from the Bay Area to LA and has brought his assistant, Sara, with him. She has the smarts to keep up with him and possibly open her own agency in the future. In a nutshell, a gangster Don, or in this case a Donette from Chicago, Rose Freschetti. contacts him to find her missing adult daughter who took off for Hollywood a couple of months ago, then went missing. There’s no doubt Julie, the daughter, checked all the boxes for pictures or modeling, but Hollywood has a way of chewing up and spitting out young hopefuls no matter how promising they look

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I like Matt. He’s a gumshoe with morals. He goes to Chicago to meet with Rose and specifies that he will look for a miss-per but will not kill to get her back. Everyone has a line in the sand, and that is his. A thousand dollars for the job, plus expenses, sounds like very profitable employment. Matt is still finding his way around Hollywood, but he takes the job, even though Rose and her daughter are black. Rose sought out Matt because he once had a serious relationship with a black woman that recently ended. Matt, being white, understands some of the culture and what Julie would need to survive in Hollywood.

An interesting aspect in this set of characters is that the person in charge of the film studio is a woman, as is Matt’s boss. The characters become rich with history, and the reader feels like they are going on the hunt with Matt. As he and his assistant, Sara, research and talk through the seek-and-find of this assignment, Matt becomes more and more adept within the corporate world of Hollywood and closer to his target. Turns out Julie is under contract with the film studio where she is being kept as a sex-slave to pay for her new heroin habit.

This is the second Matt Moulton Mystery by Michael Amedeo. Book 1 is titled Past Tense. Fade to Black is a fast read and high entertainment that matches up to Chandler, Hammet and Spillane.

To enter to win an ebook copy of Fade to Black, simply email KRL at krlcontests@gmail[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line "fade,” or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen June 28, 2025. US residents only and you must be 18 or older to enter. If entering via comment please include your email address so we can contact you. You can read our privacy statement here if you like.

Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section in Kings River Life and in our mystery category here on KRL News & Reviews. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. And check out our new mystery podcast which features mystery short stories and first chapters read by local actors! A new episode goes up next week.

You can click here to purchase this book.

J.M. Landon is retired and blissfully at work on the ‘great American novel.’ She’s worn many hats through her career including: wife, mother, piano teacher, middle school teacher, university professor, painter, jewelry maker, and dragon tamer. She has eight published short stories.

Disclosure: This post contains links to an affiliate program, for which we receive a few cents if you make purchases. KRL also receives free copies of most of the books that it reviews, that are provided in exchange for an honest review of the book.