A Hunger Grows in Hollywood: An Eleanor 'Ellie' Vance Mystery (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798993489810)

Los Angeles, April 1949

Six months after exposing the werewolf conspiracy that terrorized the city, private investigator Eleanor "Ellie" Vance thought the supernatural threats lurking in Los Angeles were all gone. She's now battle-hardened, better armed, and building a life with Irene Stout away from the shadows.

She thought a missing actress case would be a routine Hollywood tragedy: another young dreamer consumed by the city's appetite for ambition but Margaret Walker didn't just disappear into the studio system. Eleanor discovers the young woman fell prey to Julian Croix, a charismatic European film director whose avant-garde masterpieces conceal a horrifying truth. Croix doesn't just make movies about eternal life. He grants it, transforming Hollywood's most desperate dreamers into his immortal cast and crew.

When newspaper researcher Zelda Kettleton ignores Eleanor's warnings and seeks out Croix's artistic salvation, the investigation becomes personal. Now Eleanor faces creatures who seduce with promises of transcendence rather than tear victims apart, vampires who wield psychological manipulation as skillfully as supernatural strength.

Armed with a new Colt .38 Super, nicknamed 'Pops' after her dad, a blessed silver stiletto, and hard-won experience fighting monsters, Eleanor must infiltrate Croix's estate, where the city's ambitious and desperate gather for all-night parties that promise artistic immortality.

Some predators hunt with fangs. Others hunt with dreams.

And in Hollywood, the most dangerous monsters are the ones who promise to make you a star forever.

In the tradition of hard-boiled noir and seductive horror, this breakneck follow-up to "A Silver Moon Over Sunset" returns Eleanor Vance to the supernatural underworld of 1940s Los Angeles, where the real monsters wear tuxedos and promise immortality for a price.