Award-winning Author Jeff Lenburg Unravels Who's Killing Hollywood's Greatest Film Legends in New Mystery Novel

Award-winning celebrity biographer, entertainment historian, and author Jeff Lenburg, who has interviewed and written about Hollywood legends and cinematic lore since he was 15, pens his first novel about old Hollywood and legendary movie stars but with a sordid twist: Someone or something wants them dead.

(PRWEB) August 29, 2005 -- What is meant to be a time of satisfying nostalgia and camaraderie, bringing together each month at their private film club" meetings the greatest screen legends that have ever live to screen their favorite movies, turns into the unexpected. Death. Something has wrenched the last breath from these legendary actors. Something on the screen, something in those movies made their hearts stop. But what? Thats what mystery lovers have to wait to find out in author Jeff Lenburgs classic new novel, "Scared to Death: A Lori Matrix Hollywood Mystery" (iUniverse, $15.95, original trade paperback).
   
Lenburg, an award-winning celebrity biographer, entertainment historian, and author of 15 popular non-fiction books, has interviewed and written about Hollywood legends and cinematic lore since he was 15. A long-time fan of old movies and classic movie stars, "Scared to Death" fulfills one of his ambitions to write a novel about old Hollywood and legendary movie stars but with a sordid twist: Someone or something wants them dead.
   
Ive always enjoyed classic movies since I was kid, including film noir and murder mysteries," Lenburg said. One of my favorite books is the Agatha Christie murder mystery, 'Ten Little Indians, in which ten unacquainted guests are invited to a party on a remote island only for each of them to be suddenly murdered. Much like this classic mystery and others of its genre, my book combines elements of the macabre and unexpected with a much more contemporary story, setting, and characters that will leave readers guessing."
   
Lenburgs murder mystery takes many surprise twists and turns as a bright, beautiful, fiercely independent, and popular Los Angeles television news anchorwoman, Lori Matrix, lands the biggest story of her career. Covering what was to supposed to be a one-time, easy news assignment turns into something much bigger when four movie giants-and nearly a fifth-are pronounced dead after a succession of film club screenings of their classic movies and under similar mysterious circumstances. Their deaths are reported as natural causes," but, despite the absence of clues, Matrix isnt convinced. Her only shred of evidence: Each death occurred as the actor-victim watched the most memorable movie performances of their for what turned out to be the last time. Why?
   
With the help of police Sgt. Mark Bennett, a crusty cop who relishes Irish bars with whom Matrix becomes romantically attracted despite being polar opposites, Matrix races against time to unravel Hollywoods greatest mystery before the life of another screen legend is claimed.
   
Fans of Old Hollywood know Jeff Lenburg as a first-class chronicler of long-ago Tinseltown and its larger-than-life denizens. 'Scared to Death shows that hes just as adept in a fictional setting, evoking both a sense of wonder and delicious sense of dread. Anyone who loves classic movies will love this novel," says John Wooley, author of "Awash in the Blood" and countless other horror novels.
   
"Scared to Death" by Jeff Lenburg is available through local and independent bookstores, such national wholesalers as Ingram Book Group and Baker and Taylor, or can be purchased from the publisher on the web at www.iuniverse.com/bookstore.

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