Death Dance A Novel by Berton D. Garey Power, greed, envy and betrayal. Hooray for hollywood.

"My brother died violently. A gunshot to the head. The West Los Angeles Police Department spokesman said it was suicide. I wasn't so sure."

"In depth characterization, densely described venues, and clever plotting: a promising work from a new author." — Library Journal, December 1998

Marty Goldman was the best and the brightest, a pioneer in entertainment law. Honorable, decent and tough in a business increasingly dishonest and dishonorable, his stature was unrivaled. His client list of writers, directors, and actors read like a Who's Who of the film industry. His death was unexpected and shocking. That it was suicide was unbelievable; to no one more than his brother, Kurt Goldman, who leaves behind his own quiet world of designing and building in the Berkeley hills, to come to LA to bury his brother. And to settle his affairs.

Death Dance is a fast paced, darkly funny journey into the tangled thicket of deceit, envy, and money that drive the entertainment industry. It is also an examination of the tension between film as art and film as business, and the struggle to prevent greed from crushing creativity. From the studio heads, to the producers and directors and actors, and especially the deal-makers, the lawyers, that form the subtext to the industry, with wit and irony, it scours away the carefully crafted veneer of artistic gentility, and professional goodwill. It is at once a mystery, a memoir and a social commentary.

About the Author: Mr. Garey was born in Santa Monica, CA in 1944, grew up broke (or damn near) in the Beverly Hills of the late forties and fifties, the Beverly Hills of the Marx brothers, Danny Kaye, Joe Dimaggio and Marilyn Monroe, Jack Benny, George Burns, Billy Wilder, Danny Thomas, and Jimmy Stewart; went to school with their kids, then moved to the heat-baked, godforsaken, but still pleasantly rural San Fernando Valley, then attended college at the University of California at Berkeley. He has been designing and building houses in the Berkeley hills and on the Mendocino coast for 25 years. He is married and has a son, 27, and two daughters 5 and 8. Death Dance is his first novel. Other writings include an original screenplay, Zak's Hill, and the completed screen play for Death Dance. Mr. Garey is currently working on the novels, Juacaranda, Oakhurst Irregulars, Max Stories, and also Zak's Hill from his own screenplay.

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