PRINTNovel noir
A red carpet killing
February 21, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Award show season is in full swing, and Hollywood is in a chaotic, well-dressed frenzy. Amidst all the glamour and glitz, MU alumna and Los Angeles Times columnist Mary McNamara is turning heads with her recently released book, Oscar Season. Although the book has elements of a classic murder mystery, it also offers wit and snark to keep readers on their toes.
Oscar Season is set in a lavish, see-and-be-seen hotel during the peak of — you guessed it — Oscar season. A publicity stunt soon becomes fatal when staged murders become reality. As a chaotic plot unfolds, the reader might begin to wonder how much is truly fiction.
Although McNamara insists the core of the plot isn’t true, she does say the main characters’ personalities are a combination of real people; readers might find an intriguing celebrity-hybrid in the movie star or the producer.
Gossip tabloids host page after page of the trendy spots to be, but this image, she feels, is not truly representative of the city. McNamara, an entertainment journalist, is certainly no stranger to today’s star-obsessed culture, but she wrote Oscar Season in an effort to depict her own perception of L.A. “I never really recognized the Hollywood that I knew; I tried to capture that,” says McNamara. “Yes, it’s outrageous, and there are stars, and there are divas, but there are also real people, and they are dealing with real issues.”
McNamara hasn’t traveled a straight road to writing novels in L.A. After bidding adieu to Columbia in 1985, McNamara first worked for Ms. magazine, then moved on to Whittle Communications in Knoxville, Tenn., and finally found herself at the L.A. Times Magazine. Going on 20 years there, she has worked her way around the paper as a reporter, film critic and now, her current position, a television critic.
Mary Kay Blakely, an associate professor at the MU School of Journalism and McNamara’s former colleague at Ms. and the L.A. Times, says the novelist always had the instincts of a good writer. “Mary was one that you wanted to have in your work environment and one you would grab hold of her ankles if she would try and leave,” Blakely says.
McNamara’s current editor at the L.A. Times, Betsy Sharkey, adds that McNamara’s intellect and personal style make people trust her. “She makes them feel safe,” Sharkey says. “She is then able to write with more of an insider’s knowledge.”
Reflecting back, McNamara feels her time spent at MU helped provide her with that advantage after graduation. She feels her education gave her the confidence and tools to guide her through her past jobs.
Today, McNamara is using her skills to deliver a clever spin on the classic murder mystery by putting the mystique of old Hollywood back into the flashy industry of today. All else aside, McNamara says the book has had positive response, and the ending allows for a potential sequel. But readers shouldn’t get too eager just yet; McNamara will first have to find time between celebrity interviews and TV episode critiques.
