I came back to Canada with a bunch of used, and not so
used, novels. It took me a whole year to finally get to BEVERLY HILLS, finishing it up last month. Suffice to say I did
enjoy the book. Not Pat Booth’s best, but I had a real good time overall. Her
narrative, though heavily padded, is still quite impressive (almost lyrical),
as are her sex scenes, which are aplenty. The characters are memorable, even
likable in some cases. The plot has a few inconsistencies that ended up irking
me a bit (the kind that are just there to move the story along) but other than
that BEVERLY HILLS is a fun ride
through the rich and the rotten.
In a nutshell, we follow eye-catching Paula Hope who
after fleeing the Everglades winds up working for top-notched gay interior designer
Winthrop Tower in Beverly Hills. I have to say that this guy is my favorite character.
He is so endearing behind his “queen bee” facade. I find that rare in trashy
novels of the ‘80s. Usually the gay guys are highly tormented or barely there
at all or worse, just super bitchy. This Tower fellow is quite different, so
kudos to Miss Booth for inventing him.
Paula ends up rubbing elbows with The Beautiful People,
one of whom is hunky film superstar Robert Hartford. Though their first
interactions don’t go as planned they eventually fall for one another. But like
in any other well-matched pair in glitzy novels their love comes with a price
and that price is none other than Beverly Hills new age guru Caroline
Kierkegaard who will do anything to destroy Hartford’s newfound happiness (they
go a long way). Add a battle of the
sexes for the control of an infamous hotel plus a fanatic chauffeur who only
has eyes for Paula and you’ve got yourself one pleasant sleazy story despite
its faults.
This is my fourth Pat Booth read. She wrote a total of
15 novels, I believe (excluding her non-fiction MASTER PHOTOGRAPHERS), before
her untimely passing in 2009 from cancer. Rumor has it that her advance
paycheck from her racy books rivaled that of Judith Krantz’s, when she
successfully jumped aboard the US market from the UK. I am not that surprised. Remember,
it was the ‘80s, the heyday of the trashy novels. Regardless, she deserved every penny. Her
books are fun beach reads that certainly deserve the wide readership.
Until next post—Martin
 |
| 1990 Ballantine PB edition |
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