Death by Sunshine

This third novel narrated by B.K Troop is a masterpiece of dark fiction, and a thoroughly delightful mystery.Mr. Burnett is a consummate writer, and his use and love of language feels like a tapestry of words with hidden surprises everywhere. To those who have read his two earlier books Christopher, and House Beautiful you will see B.K. aging and aware; for those of you who are just now becoming acquainted this story will not hinge on them..wait until you fall in love with B.K. then buy the others! In other reviews the plot has been discussed, so my comments will go to the heart of how this book feels to a reader. If you enjoy stories that are linear and created with a few brushstrokes,go somewhere else. If you enjoy a book which reminds you of a Renaissance tapestry then hunker down. Mr. Burnett's books create magnificent images, fleshed out in color and in detail while keeping a closely knit story.His language is lush, and the words roll off your tongue and mind as you alternately laugh and weep for the characters. I have heard that this is B.K.'s last adventure, but I hope this is a false rumor; maybe one more book in the House Beautiful, please. I do not understand why Mr. Burnett's books have not made him more highly visible in the non-writing community.I hope that he will be recognized widely for the fact that he makes the English language beautiful while all around us it seems to be disappearing in abbreviations.

Foregoing all temporal reality: if Quentin Crisp and Angela Lansbury's Jessica Fletcher (Murder, She Wrote) had, through the necessity of artificial insemination, merged their loins and created an embryo whose petri dish had been spritzed with the perspiration wrung from the post-coital sheets of a three-way between Tennessee Williams, Agnes Moorehead, and John Waters, that love child might have grown up to become B.K. Troop, the hero of DEATH BY SUNSHINE -- the triumphant finale in the Troop trilogy.Allison Burnett's latest novel is a resplendently literate, barn-burning mystery that also packs a helluva page-by-page comic punch. The story follows Troop from his "House Beautiful" in New York to L.A. as he sweats and swans around Hollywood heeding the siren call of a movie deal for CHRISTOPHER, his (and incidentally, Burnett's) first novel. Instead of sealing his six-figure deal come true, Troop stumbles into a wholly unexpected turn of events among the shadows cast by that notorious Tinseltown beast, "the Industry."Burnett, a novelist, poet, and a screenwriter, spins a no holds barred showbiz-tinged tale that could only be told by a knowing insider. His erudite, athletic prose is a joyride -- particularly as he makes sure that Hollywood neophyte Troop gives as good as he gets.DEATH BY SUNSHINE brings the B.K. Troop trilogy to an uproarious, disturbing, and surprisingly moving finish. While it's not absolutely necessary to have read CHRISTOPHER and THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL, knowing them doubles your pleasure, doubles your fun in the California "Sunshine." Buy this book, luxuriate in Burnett's sumptuous language, and be prepared to LOL!

(First off, a disclaimer, Allison Burnett is my brother. However, I feel I can be an honest and objective reviewer because honesty and objectivity, as well as good looks, humility and intelligence run in my family.)"Death By Sunshine" is the last (?) and, I think, best in a trilogy of books narrated by B.K. Troop, who I also think is my brother's best and most fully realized character. I'm particularly fond of reading books written in the first person because I feel like I'm in the company of the narrator in addition to just reading a book. In this case, it was like sitting down to a series of long lunches with a particularly funny, educated, fat, intellectual, gay, alcoholic, bi-polar, literate, elderly, tender-hearted friend with a story to tell. I like to read slowly, a little every day, and when I was done with this book, I found I missed the narrator's company, as if I had just dropped off a treasured friend who'd visited for the holidays at the airport and was feeling that bitter-sweet melancholy that only comes in such situations. The other two B.K. Troop novels ("Christopher" and "The House Beautiful") are set in New York City and are well worth reading. This one is set in L.A. as B.K. travels West (on a train because, like my brother, and increasingly, me, he is afraid of "falling through space on fire".) The reason for his trip West is to sell the movie rights to "Christopher". The narrative starts with B.K.'s characteristic wit and self-deprecating charm and I buckled in expecting a wicked skewering of the Hollywood movie scene. Upon his arrival, for reasons I won't spoil here, he is diverted into a murder mystery of sorts involving an aspiring actor and a cast of Hollywood wannabe's and low-lifes. At first I found this disappointing, I was hoping for B.K. to sink his old world sharpened teeth into the upper echelons or the entertainment "industry", a modern world my brother, who is also a Hollywood screenwriter knows all too well. But I swallowed my disappointment and went along for the ride. As always, I found B.K.'s adventures and his descriptions of them to be laugh out loud funny, thought provoking, and moving, even if I wasn't as involved emotionally with the central mystery as I was with the literary "detective" trying to solve it. Simply as a slice-of-life meandering story of an ordinary person's sudden disappearance and an extraordinary person's attempt to figure out what happened, it was still very funny and engaging and created a vivid world that firmly held my interest. But, and how often do you hear this?, I LOVED the ending, in which a kind hearted stranger defies Hollywood stereotypes and not only befriends B.K. but helps to...well, you'll have to read the book to find out who done it and why. I highly recommend this book and I recommend that you read it with your laptop nearby to help flesh out the literary references. Although the narrator is gay, my brother and I are both not and you don't have to be gay in order to enjoy it. It made me laugh, it made me think and it made me feel, in unexpected and delightful ways.

Allison Burnett has outdone himself again, channeling the hilarious character BK Troop to perfection. This novel earns its place in the very catalogue of definitive LA novels referred to throughout the book. It's truly hilarious, moving, soulful, witty, erudite, and clever beyond belief. I'm awed by Mr. Burnett's command of the English language; he's a master of original zingy one-liners and epigrams that would do Oscar Wilde proud. Very rarely do I have to stop reading a book to take a moment to enjoy a full blown belly laugh. If there was any justice in the world this book would be more widely recognized as a modern literary classic. Burnett is a rare thing, a soulful satirist!