Make Believe
by Ed Ifkovic
In 1951 Edna Ferber travels to Hollywood to support a friend blacklisted because of the Communist witch-hunt. Against the backdrop of the premiere of Show Boat, she becomes involved with Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra and their circle of friends. When her friend is murdered, Edna understands that she has to find the killer.Review"Back from a long-ago prequel in her hometown (Escape Artist, 2011, etc.), formidable author Edna Ferber returns to the 1950s and to her most unlikely avocation: amateur sleuthing."--Kirkus Reviews"A host of Hollywood and Broadway personalities from Hedda Hopper to George S. Kaufman provide period color as a sharp-witted Edna probes for the reason behind Max’s murder." --Publishers Weekly“This is a thoroughly charming mystery. Edna Ferber makes a wonderful sleuth[,] and readers will be entranced by her plucky spirit and sharp-witted investigative skills.” --Booklist Starred review for Escape ArtistAbout the AuthorEdward Ifkovic taught literature and creative writing at a community college in Connecticut for more than three decades. His short stories and essays have appeared in the Village Voice, America, Hartford Monthly, and Journal of Popular Culture. A longtime devotee of mystery novels, he fondly recalls discovering Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason series in a family bookcase.