Summary from Goodreads...
Halloween Night, 1954. A young, film-obsessed scriptwriter has just been hired at one of the great studios. An anonymous investigation leads from the giant Maximus Films backlot to an eerie graveyard separated from the studio by a single wall. There he makes a terrifying discovery that thrusts him into a maelstrom of intrigue and mystery—and into the dizzy exhilaration of the movie industry at the height of its glittering power.
The narrator of the story is a writer who is hired to work with his friend on a film for a Hollywood movie studio. The story gets so complex and changes directions so fast that initially I had no idea what was going on and who was doing what. It is a mix of many genres and the way it was written was often very confusing for me.
A lot of the characters represent real persons but have different names, and I don't know enough about Hollywood studios (past or present) to know who they are referencing. But Ray Bradbury writes about Hollywood with love and his enthusiasm for the movies is catching. The story appears to be autobiographical. He did spend some time working in Hollywood, especially working on screenplays.
This is the 2nd in a three-book mystery series. The first book, Death is a Lonely Business, is a homage to mystery writers such as Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Ross Macdonald, who are mentioned in the dedication for that book. A Graveyard for Lunatics seems to be more about Bradbury's experiences in Hollywood in the 1950s and 60s. Both books include bizarre happenings and strange, eccentric characters.
Some readers of this book who are looking for a mystery may be disappointed; I did not find it very mysterious. The book may also leave readers expecting a fantasy unsatisfied. But in the end I enjoyed the story and was very glad I read it. The magic of Ray Bradbury's writing turns it into a lovely story.
My only regret is that I read this book so long after I read the first book in the series. Both books share some characters and I think it would have improved my reading experience to read them together. I hope to read the 3rd book in the series, Let's All Kill Constance, soon.
Ray Bradbury's dedication in A Graveyard for Lunatics...
With love, to the living:
SID STEBEL,
who showed me how to solve my own mystery;
ALEXANDRA,
my daughter, who cleaned up after us.
GEORGE BURNS,
who told me I was a writer when I was fourteen.And to the dead:
ROUBEN MAMOULIAN,
GEORGE CUKOR,
JOHN HUSTON,
BILL SKALL,
FRITZ LANG,
and JAMES WONG HOWE.And to
RAY HARRYHAUSEN
for obvious reasons.
[A note on the dedication:
Ray Bradbury and Ray Harryhausen were good friends for many decades, until Bradbury died in 2012. Harryhausen was a highly regarded animator and special effects creator.]
