GEORGE BAXT – The Neon Graveyard. St. Martin’s, hardcover, 1979. Intl. Polygonics Ltd., paperback, 1989.

   This is Baxt’s first mystery novel in some time, and the title fits perfectly. It’s flashy, it’s rotten to the core, and it’s terribly depressing. What the title actually refers to is the city of Hollywood, USA, and maybe you’re way ahead of me.

   As a novel of the utterly bizarre, it comes equipped with all the essentials, including a clonish retread of Mae West, a gorilla who acts as her bodyguard, and a castle of orgies so vile that even federal investigators are forced to sit up and take notice.

   The not-so-surprising lesson to be learned from all this is that decadence per se can carry a mystery story only so far. The humor may be called biting and sardonic by some, but the truth of the matter is that while detective story readers are given a lot to swallow here, there’s really no way they can avoid starving to death on the food for thought that Baxt totally fails to provide.

Note:   There was a seven year gap between Baxt’s previous mystery novel, Burning Sappho, and The Neon Graveyard, and it was another five years before he wrote The Dorothy Parker Murder Case, the first of a series of many “movie star” mysteries, all of which I believe I can safely recommend over this one.