I read this book when it first was published, so I am obviously not in the best position to critique it at least a couple years later. However, when it comes to James Dean I am an admitted addict and have read almost everything that has been published about him over the past 30 years. What makes this book a standout is that it concentrates on Dean's death as opposed to his life. It provides very detailed information re: his last ride and how his death and the subsequent hoopla surrounding it was handled. It also provides quite a lot of previously unpublished material in regard to the period immediately before and after his death. The author has saved us all a lot of pain and irritation by researching this material in a factual and precise manner.
What makes this book a positive departure from the other Dean book is that there is no psychological stuff about Dean's tortured youth or attempts to affix a death wish to him, just a lot of good hard facts. Joe Friday couldn't do a better job in that area.
The best part of this book? It sticks to the truth and makes for an interesting read.

Beath makes the death of James Dean a very personal experience for the reader. This is not a book one reads and forgets - the reader has participated in the author's passionate search for the substance behind the tragedy and the reader is changed. I'm ready for more from this author.

The most amazing aspect of Beath's book is the original and innovative research. Basically, Beath was the first Hollywood biographer to dig into public records--traffic reports, lawsuit testimony--and uncover facts about Dean's death that had been previously overlooked. If Pulitzer Prizes were not the preserve of Manhattan writers and their pals, Warren Newton Beath of Bakersfield, California would have won one for this book.

When I read a vampire novel, I want to care a small amount about the plot and characters. This novel did nothing but disgust me. From necrophilia to massive amounts of gore, this novel moves as far away from the gothic wonders of "Dracula" as you can get.

The novel focuses on a pshychiatrist who seems to have as many mental problems as the people she is supposedly treating. In fact, every character in the book seems to have serious mental problems. There is some sex in the book, but most of it isn't likely to excite the reader. There is a lot of gore if you like gore. There is a vampire who rarely appears as a vampire. After 300 pages of buildup, the final confrontation between good and evil takes about two pages--not the most satisfying conclusion to a vampire book.

One of the BEST books to come from Beath! A total change from the Dean collection. We need to see more of this stuff from Warren. He is truly a GREAT and talented author.

Michael P. Tibbs, Oxnard, Ca. 93030

It seemed like an intriguing concept when I read the front and back covers; something like either a James Elroy novel or Sidney Kirkpatrick's excellent "A Cast of Killers." Instead, this story goes back and forth and beyond -- part mystery, part horror story, part apocryphal Hollywood tell-all, part semi-documentation of the dangers of all too-intense hero worship -- and at the end of it, there is no sense of WHICH genre it falls into, thus making it a very muddled and confusing read.