Frenchman Pierre Bernet is a furloughed film cutter. (I’d call him a film editor, but perhaps film cutter was either the formal or informal designation in 1940s Hollywood.) What makes this novel a crime story is the fact that poor Pierre is contracted to exhume a scripted narrative from a catalog of an actor’s filmography. Unbeknown to Pierre, his client will then insert the second half of the conversation to create an entirely fictitious piece of testimony.

That’s the plot. It’s central, but in many ways secondary. It provides the framework for the real story, a dueling pair of love triangles that completely engulf Pierre. Author Wilson provides a tour de force of inner dialogue and shifting emotions, sometimes shared aloud and sometimes ricocheting around our hero’s prodigious brain. This extraordinary crime story may not revel in non-stop action, but its fascinating, confounding character depths provide a more than satisfying payoff again and again.

Bonus: Randal S. Brandt provides a brilliant introduction revealing the impressive cred of the book’s beautiful, behind-the-scenes Hollywood mogul.