Laura Mazzuca Toops Reviews

Added July 17, 2003

The Harold Gilbert Trilogy Book 1: The Latham Loop

Author: Laura Mazzuca Toops
Publisher: Amber Quill Press
Available At: www.amberquill.com
Publishing Date: Available Now
Genre: Fiction: Historical
Format: Ebook download in PDF/HTML/
Price: $5.50 ebook, $14.50 trade paperback
ISBN: 1-59279-059-3 ebook, 1-59279-949-3 trade paperback
Author Email/Website: lauratoops.com/
Reviewer: Sharyn McGinty

Greed, sex, drugs, power, fame. Sounds like a modern-day version of Hollywood, right? Well, guess again. This is the world of Hollywood in early 1910.

Harold Gilbert is a partner in a juggling vaudeville act. Tired of living act to act and out of his trunk, he manages to persuade his partner to come to California with him. Moving pictures are on the rise and it shouldn't be too hard for them to get jobs, right? After all, they are in show business.

Making it big in California is much harder than Harold ever thought. Every day he makes studio rounds, hoping to get chosen as an extra. Broke and hungry, he finally decides to visit the ocean. While there, he sees a little girl being pulled out to sea. Thinking only of saving her, he dashes in and brings her back to safety. Once on land, he learns the little girl wasn't really in too much danger, she was performing a part in a two-reel picture.

The director is very impressed with Harold's actions and hires him on the spot as a stuntman. He can't give him a salary as two-reel pictures are used mostly as two-reels are mostly used for fillers, but will pay him for every stunt. Happy to be having steady work, Harold accepts and for the most part, enjoys his work. Before long he carries around a composition notebook for all his ideas for stunts and even pictures.

Author Laura Toops takes readers on an unforgettable journey to the not-so distant past to the birth of Hollywood and moving pictures. Companies rise and fall, stars are born and forgotten, and readers are inexplicably drawn to the main characters. Harold is a unique hero, sometimes unsure of himself and nervous, but he's also loyal, true, determined and ready to take a chance. The way Ms. Toops captures real-life personalities takes The Latham Loop beyond the realm of fiction.

These characters are not perfect or nor do they contain only minor character flaws; they're real. Harold has moments that shock and surprise the readers. I didn't mention the secondary characters in the review, as I was more drawn to Harold. Yet even they have their own uniqueness, and I look forward to seeing them in next books. As this is part of a series, all the loose ends weren't tied up as well as I like, but it does raise all sorts of questions as to what will happen next. I'm looking forward to the release of Slapstick: Book II of the Harold Gilbert Trilogy.

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