Hot Toddy: The True Story Of Hollywood's Most Sensational Murder

Plot

When she was found battered and bloodied in her Lincoln Phaeton convertible, authorities declared it suicide. Others called it murder. Thelma Todd, one of America's most popular comediennes, was dead. And no one knew why. She was the blonde with style. The bombshell with the wisecrack. Thelma Todd wanted to be a schoolteacher; instead she became a star. She wanted to run a restaurant; instead she ran into the mob. In 1935 more than five hundred letters were sent to her weekly by her fans. but the ones who attracted her most were dangerous men. Gloria Swanson. The Marx Brothers. Laurel and Hardy. ZaSu PItts, Patsy Kelly. Buster Keaton. Charley Chase. Roland West. Al capone. Lucky Luciano. Hot Toddy worked and played with the best of them. And now, more than fifty years after the notorious Thelma Todd murder case was closed unsolved, Andy Edmonds fingers the killer. Set against the film industry Thelma Todd conquered - an industry racing as fast as the speed of sound - the puzzle that has fascinated movie buffs and fans of true crime for years has been conclusively solved - in blazing black and white. From the films that made Todd famous - Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Two for Tonight - to the eerie feeling that someone was lurking in the shadows on the night of her murder, Hot Toddy is masterful sleuthing by one of crime's top mystery writers and the startling true story of Hollywood's most sensational crime. -- from dust jacket.