A scintillating debut novel that brings the golden age of Hollywood to glittering life, from star-studded opening nights to backlot brawls, on-location Westerns to the Hollywood Canteen. Through character actress turned gossip columnist Edie O'Dare's eyes, Lindsay Lynch draws back the curtain on classic Hollywood’s secrets.
"Glamorous, tawdry, and human. A rich portrait of the lives of early Hollywood's beautiful puppets and those holding their strings.” –Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow • “Do Tell illuminates issues of fame and notoriety as relevant now as they were almost a century ago.” –Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of Horse
As character actress Edie O'Dare finishes the final year of her contract with FWM Studios, the clock is ticking for her to find a new gig after an undistinguished stint in the pictures. She's long supplemented her income moonlighting for Hollywood's reigning gossip columnist, providing her with the salacious details of every party and premiere. When an up-and-coming starlet hands her a letter alleging an assault from an A-list actor at a party with Edie and the rest of the industry’s biggest names in attendance, Edie helps get the story into print and sets off a chain of events that will alter the trajectories of everyone involved.
Now on a new side of the entertainment business, Edie’s second act career grants her more control on the page than she ever commanded in front of the camera. But Edie quickly learns that publishing the secrets of those former colleagues she considers friends has repercussions. And when she finds herself in the middle of the trial of the decade, Edie is forced to make an impossible choice with the potential to ruin more than one life. Full of sharp observation and crackling wit, debut novelist Lindsay Lynch maps the intricate networks of power that manufacture the magic of the movies and interrogates who actually gets to tell women's stories.
A scintillating debut novel that brings the golden age of Hollywood to glittering life, from star-studded opening nights to backlot brawls, on-location Westerns to the Hollywood Canteen. Through character actress turned gossip columnist Edie O'Dare's eyes, Lindsay Lynch draws back the curtain on classic Hollywood’s secrets.
"Glamorous, tawdry, and human. A rich portrait of the lives of early Hollywood's beautiful puppets and those holding their strings.” –Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time Tomorrow • “Do Tell illuminates issues of fame and notoriety as relevant now as they were almost a century ago.” –Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of Horse
As character actress Edie O'Dare finishes the final year of her contract with FWM Studios, the clock is ticking for her to find a new gig after an undistinguished stint in the pictures. She's long supplemented her income moonlighting for Hollywood's reigning gossip columnist, providing her with the salacious details of every party and premiere. When an up-and-coming starlet hands her a letter alleging an assault from an A-list actor at a party with Edie and the rest of the industry’s biggest names in attendance, Edie helps get the story into print and sets off a chain of events that will alter the trajectories of everyone involved.
Now on a new side of the entertainment business, Edie’s second act career grants her more control on the page than she ever commanded in front of the camera. But Edie quickly learns that publishing the secrets of those former colleagues she considers friends has repercussions. And when she finds herself in the middle of the trial of the decade, Edie is forced to make an impossible choice with the potential to ruin more than one life. Full of sharp observation and crackling wit, debut novelist Lindsay Lynch maps the intricate networks of power that manufacture the magic of the movies and interrogates who actually gets to tell women's stories.
LINDSAY LYNCH is a writer from Washington, DC. A longtime indie bookseller, she currently lives in Nashville, TN, where she works as a book buyer for Parnassus Books. Her work has appeared in The Adroit Journal, The Rumpus, Electric Lit, The Atlantic, The Offing and Lit Hub, among other places. She has been a participant in the Tin House Summer Workshop and the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. She holds an MFA in Fiction from the University of Wyoming. Do Tell is her debut novel.
“A wonderful, provocative novel about the way time changes how we
see the world. Edie O'Dare is a failed Hollywood actress who
reinvents herself as a gossip columnist in order to keep a roof
over her head, only to discover that this is the job she's good at.
Like our intrepid narrator, Do Tell manages to be both funny and
substantive, breezy and wise. I stepped into the stream of the
narrative and didn't look up until I came to the last page.”
--Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of The Dutch
House
"Gossip columnist Edie O’Dare has enemies and sources, but no
friends in a Golden Age Hollywood whose gleam is tarnished by
exploitation, cruelty and betrayal. Like a latter-day Cecil B.
DeMille, Lindsay Lynch deftly directs her large cast of morally
complex characters to illuminate issues of fame and notoriety as
relevant now as they were almost a century ago."
--Geraldine Brooks, New York Times bestselling author of Horse
"There is little more alluring than the promise of secrets, and Do
Tell is full of them--glamorous, tawdry, and human. Lindsay Lynch
has created a rich portrait of the lives of early Hollywood's
beautiful puppets and those holding their strings."
--Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of This Time
Tomorrow
"Luscious . . . Lynch . . . deftly walks a line here between
telling a blunt 'Me Too' story and serving up plenty of Turner
Classics movie glamour. . . In her best lines, Edie also
channels the wit of a Dorothy Parker"
--Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air
"Masterfully shaped. . . a gripping narrative set largely in the
pre-war years of Hollywood. It follows the long career trajectory
of its protagonist, an actress who . . . finds a second act, which
includes encounters with a sweeping panoply of movie stars and
wannabees."
--Tom Hall, WYPR
"Ambitious . . . O’Dare’s voice resembles that of a hard-boiled,
wisecracking private eye: a Sam Spade sister who operates within,
and reports on, cutthroat Tinseltown antics."
--The Washington Post
"A noir-like tale of Hollywood’s underbelly. . . If your best
subject at trivia is Turner Classic Movies, if you go to
conventions dressed like a starlet from Hollywood’s gilded age, Do
Tell is a must-read."
--The Associated Press
"Compelling"
--Minneapolis Star Tribune
“In Do Tell Lindsay Lynch takes a glance back at golden-age
Hollywood and captures the fizzy magic, the secret lives, and the
deep, destructive misogyny within the industry’s DNA. This is a
wry, entertaining, and incisive debut.”
--Lily King, New York Times bestselling author of Writers &
Lovers
“This dazzling novel is a riveting exposé of the dream factory
which will surprise readers at every turn. You won't be able to put
it down.”
--Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of The Good
Left Undone
"[Lynch's] twisty take on the golden age of Hollywood offers
something for everybody."
--Hollywood Reporter
“Do Tell is an absolute marvel: page-turning yet thought-provoking,
historical in its setting yet contemporary in its concerns. With a
keen eye for period detail, Lindsay Lynch explores how the power of
secrets were the secret to power in Hollywood’s Golden Age. The
result is a deeply moving, immensely satisfying, blockbuster of a
debut novel."
--Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author of Mercury
Pictures Presents
"Lindsay Lynch has written a novel so thoroughly immersive, I
looked up from its pages disoriented -- confused not to find myself
amid the couture gowns and hushed secrets of old Hollywood. I'll
tell every reader I know: I adored Do Tell."
-- Mary Laura Philpott, bestselling author of Bomb Shelter: Love,
Time, and Other Explosives
"Do Tell is a glittering, riot of a debut filled with tantalizing
gossip, lavish parties and an insider’s glimpse into a bygone era
of Hollywood glamour. Lindsay Lynch brings the studio system to
life with these unforgettable yet deeply complicated characters
whose lives are caught at the crossroads of power and truth
telling. This is a novel you won’t want to miss."
--Kali Fajardo-Anstine, bestselling author of Woman of Light and
Sabrina & Corina
"An electric novel about power and complicity in the Golden Age of
Hollywood told through the eyes of Edith O’Dare, a narrator as
fearsome as she is fallible. In Do Tell, Lindsay Lynch masterfully
uncovers a world in which gossip is currency and image is
everything, laying bare the devastating consequences of secrets
told and untold. Enthralling and utterly relevant."
--Jenny Tinghui Zhang, international bestselling author of Four
Treasures of the Sky
"Stunning . . . Do Tell is a vivid novel of the early days of
Hollywood glitz and glamour, and tells the story of one woman
making her way in a world dominated by fame, power, secrets--and
men."
--Shelf Awareness
"Sparkling, sharp. . . It’s tempting to call Do Tell timely,
but the chilling truth is that it feels timeless. . . With its
insider-outsider narrator and dazzling cast of characters, Do Tell
shares a kinship with The Great Gatsby."
--Chapter 16
"An intelligent story of Hollywood’s Golden Age . . . the
dialogue and Edie’s narration are steeped in the rapid-fire rhythm
of the era’s films . . . Lovers of the silver screen will be drawn
to this."
--Publishers Weekly
"Between the glittering descriptions of couture gowns and award
shows, this scathing, retrospective #MeToo tale focuses on how
people will protect famous, predatory men out of self-preservation.
. . Readers looking for a novel that covers all the drama
Hollywood has to offer, from its glitz to its evils, will find much
to enjoy here."
--Booklist
"A clever first novel; it should be catnip to devotees of Golden
Age Hollywood."
--Air Mail
"Entertaining . . . An intimate look at Hollywood's dark
secrets."
--Kirkus
"Lynch offers a page-turning historical fiction as lavish as a Jay
Gatsby party. Readers won’t soon forget Edie O’Dare, a failed
Golden Age Hollywood starlet, who is one of the most striking
narrators in recent memory. Lynch’s language dazzles on every
page."
--Debutiful
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