The Platinum Loop%E2%80%A8

Pulp fun at its best, William's (Crimson Orgy) second novel combines Elmore Leonard's style with a sleazy Vegas setting. In 1973, con artist Floyd Manning has documents that prove the existence of a film reel showing Marilyn Monroe in the middle of an intimate moment. Though he has lined up a buyer%E2%80%94Henry Prewett, a menacing and perverted Monroe aficionado%E2%80%94he doesn't have the film itself. Fortunately, he meets down on his luck film producer Gene Hoffman (one of the leads from Crimson Orgy), who needs $1,000 to option a quality screenplay that will vault his career into legitimacy. Floyd proposes a dangerous ploy: with Stella, a shockingly convincing Monroe impersonator, they can use the description in the documents to shoot the film and sell it themselves. Things go well until gangsters hunting Floyd meet up with a private detective hunting Gene. Floyd and Gene then flee to Tijuana with a half-shot film to try to get what money they can from Henry. Though these two are scheming losers, their engaging dynamic contributes to the novel's fast pace. (Nov.)