The Dead Circus
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''The Dead Circus'' is a
neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...
crime novel set in 1960s–80s Los Angeles by John Kaye. The novel was shortlisted by ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' for their Book of the Year list in 2003.


Plot details

It is set in 1986 and following the storyline of Kaye's first novel ''Stars Screaming,'' Gene Burk has just lost his fiancée in an airplane crash. Afraid that he will lose himself entirely to his grief, Gene starts to obsess over the 20-year-old mysterious death of rockabilly newcomer Bobby Fuller. He had worked the case, unsuccessfully, when he was a cop with the LAPD, and as he begins to reopen old leads, he starts to shake up the wrong people, putting his own life in danger. Gene is then contacted by Alice McMillan, a former member of the Manson family who needs his help in putting that life behind her once and for all. They ultimately venture off together into
Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the ...
in search of Charles Manson's 16 mm
snuff film A snuff film, or snuff movie, or snuff video, is a type of film that shows, or purports to show, scenes of actual homicide. The concept of snuff films became known to the general public during the 1970s, when an urban legend alleged that a cland ...
s that may contain the answers Gene is looking for regarding the circumstances of Fuller's death.


References


External links


Review of the novel in ''The New York Times''
2003 American novels American crime novels Fictional portrayals of the Los Angeles Police Department Cultural depictions of Charles Manson Novels set in Los Angeles American novels adapted into films Fiction set in 1986 Novels set in the 1980s {{Manson Family