Strangers in the Night: A Novel of Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner

Webb (The Next Ship Home) turns to the glamour, passion, and competitiveness of Golden Age Hollywood with a stilted reimagining of the stormy relationship between Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner. The leads take turns, in remarkably similar narrative voices, recounting their love story’s twists and turns. The first time Frank sets eyes on Ava at the Hollywood Palladium in the early 1940s, he wants her, despite already being married to Nancy, his childhood sweetheart. Ava is, for him, “The kind of woman that knocked the air from your lungs.” The feeling isn’t mutual. Ava is married to Mickey Rooney and is focused on her career, determined to move from being one of MGM’s “love goddesses” to a serious actor. After five years of acting classes and studio publicity gigs, and two divorces, she’s finally on the brink of stardom. Ava and Frank have a series of chance encounters during those years, and despite her reservations, she senses a “tender and passionate” side to Frank. Webb stuffs in all the highlights of Frank and Ava’s Hollywood lives but offers no new insights or meaningful character development. As the couple’s on-and-off relationship brings tumult to their lives, readers, too, will wonder if it’s worth going the distance. For a story about two oversized and magnetic personalities, this is surprisingly flat. Agent: Simon Lipskar, Writers House. (Mar.)