Last Days of Marilyn Monroe: A True Crime Thriller A True Crime Thriller

Patterson (The Idaho Four) teams up with journalist Edwards-Jones (The Witches of St. Petersburg) for an entertaining, lightly fictionalized account of Marilyn Monroe's life and death. Writing from an omniscient, third-person-present perspective, the authors run through the highlights and lowlights of Norma Jeane Mortenson's tumultuous 1930s California childhood, dissect her famous affairs and brushes with organized crime, and speculate about the possible causes--including suicide, murder, or overdose--of her untimely death in 1962. Heavy on dialogue and bursting with anecdotes about the men who tried to define Monroe's legacy, including ex-husbands Arthur Miller and Joe DiMaggio and political figures from JFK to Nikita Khrushchev, the narrative makes up for its familiarity with zippy pacing and novelistic detail. (When DiMaggio briefly disappears from her life after Christmas 1961, Monroe keeps her tree up: "The pine needles have long since dropped, the lights are broken, and the ornaments are hanging limply from the bent branches.") Though the authors don't offer much new or revelatory information about Monroe, there's enough craft on display to keep the pages turning. Readers with a soft spot for Hollywood's perennial muse will find plenty to enjoy. Agent: Robert Barnett, Williams & Connolly. (Dec.)