And Introducing Dexter Gaines: A Novel of Old Hollywood - Paperback

by Mark B. Perry (Author)

Emmy, Golden Globe, and GLAAD Award-winning writer Mark B. Perry deftly weaves fictional characters with well-known personalities of Hollywood's golden age into this powerful and sparkling novel about the wages of flesh and sin.

HOLLYWOOD, 1952

Blessed with the smoldering good looks that destine him for the silver screen, the unfortunately named Dan Root arrives on the scene as a naïve but ambitious 21-year-old. Mentored and exploited by a powerful and dashing Svengali-like producer and his beguiling wife (a movie star whose career is on the tragic cusp between fame and fade out), Dan is transformed into the promising young actor, Dexter Gaines.

Soon their three lives become dangerously entangled by sexual awakening and unrequited love, but when their passion and deceit lead to a crushing discovery and attempted murder, Dexter is forced to choose between stardom and survival. Four decades later, a heartbreaking event compels Dan to return to the city of lost dreams and confront his past. It is only then he begins to unravel the twists and turns of a long-ago emotional mystery, to make peace with his past and his foiled chance at stardom.

Mark B. Perry's alternating timelines explore the corrosive confluence of fame, fortune, sexuality, and ill-fated romance in this captivating Capote-esque novel.

Author Biography

Mark B. Perry is an Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning writer and producer whose credits include The Wonder Years (1988), Picket Fences, Law & Order, Party of Five, Brothers & Sisters, Ghost Whisperer, and Revenge. He's also been nominated for both The Humanitas Prize and a WGA Award. His "Two Doors Down" episode of Netflix's Dolly Parton's Heartstrings won a GLAAD Media Award in 2020. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, Mark moved to Los Angeles in 1986 to pursue a career in film and television.