This is a fic­tion­al­ized account of the tumul­tuous rela­tion­ship between Lil­lian Hell­man and Dashiell Ham­mett. Ham­mett was a pri­vate detec­tive and author of The Mal­tese Fal­con and The Thin Man; Hell­man is known for her suc­cess­ful plays, ​“The Children’s Hour” and ​“The Lit­tle Fox­es.” Author Sam Toper­off did exten­sive research and incor­po­rates de­tails about the col­lab­o­ra­tions between these two writ­ers and also about their inter­ac­tions with stu­dio big­wigs such as Louis B. May­er, Jack Warn­er, Samuel Gold­wyn, and David O. Selznick. Toper­off invents their pri­vate conver­sations and some of the inci­dents based upon the facts. The sto­ry is told by turns in Lillian’s and Dash’s own voic­es, so we get insight into how each viewed the events in their lives. The book spans Hollywood’s hey­day and we read about some of the major stars of the time. The two were deeply affect­ed by huge polit­i­cal events, and the Span­ish Civ­il War, World War II, Fas­cism, Com­mu­nism are all cov­ered, as are anti-Semi­tism, alco­hol addic­tion, army cul­ture, loy­al­ty and infi­deli­ty and artis­tic inse­cu­ri­ty and jeal­ousy. The McCarthy era tri­als were par­tic­u­lar­ly inter­est­ing to read about.

I learned much about the fas­ci­nat­ing Dash and Lil­lian and how they dealt with the chal­lenges of their voca­tion and the dif­fi­cul­ties of their era. They were both clever, tal­ent­ed indi­vid­u­als who alter­nate­ly enjoyed and endured their spe­cial con­nec­tion for over thir­ty years. The author describes their unique love story’s ups and downs as it was affect­ed by per­son­al and polit­i­cal changes. This is a won­der­ful read for any­one inter­est­ed in the enter­tain­ment indus­try, recent his­to­ry, or illic­it romance.