Alchemy of Secrets

Alchemy of Secrets is steeped in the mythology of Hollywood’s Golden Age, a period from the 1920s to the 1960s defined by glamorous studios, iconic stars, and a carefully constructed image of American idealism that often concealed a darker reality of corruption and scandal. The novel borrows heavily from film noir, a cinematic style that flourished during this era, characterized by cynical detectives, mysterious femme fatales, urban decay, and labyrinthine murder plots. This context provides the novel with its distinctive atmosphere, in which glamor and corruption intertwine. Holland St. James, the protagonist, curates a “film noir series” (13), and the narrative is filled with references to classic stars like Veronica Lake, Cary Grant, and Grace Kelly. The novel’s aesthetic, foregrounding historical landmarks such as the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, creates a pervasive sense of manufactured illusion.

The novel’s central mystery—the deaths of Hollywood power couple Isla Saint and Benjamin Tierney—mirrors the demises of real-life Hollywood stars such as James Dean and Jayne Mansfield, whose untimely deaths in car accidents ultimately overshadowed their professional achievements. The description of the Tierney-Saint deaths as a “sensational story people still talked about today” (19) highlights the enduring public fascination with such incidents. Recurring references to Marilyn Monroe, who, like Mason Bishop, is rumored to haunt the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, emphasize the conspiracy theories that inevitably accumulate around tragic Hollywood events. Although ruled an accidental overdose, Monroe’s death in 1962 remains one of the movie industry’s most disputed cases, spawning urban legends that the actress’s relationship with President J.F. Kennedy and his brother led her to be murdered by the CIA. 

By grounding its plot in Hollywood’s cultural history, the novel creates a world where the line between cinematic myth and reality is deliberately ambiguous. The Professor’s observation that “Hollywood was not built on dreams, it was built on favors from the devil” (36) underscores the corruption that often lay beneath the glamorous façade of Golden Age movies. Although these films offered a vision of perfection, their stars were exploited and controlled by powerful studios. Contracts frequently included “morality clauses,” such as arranging “lavender” marriages for gay actors and enforcing the termination of pregnancies. Meanwhile, Hollywood “fixers” such as MGM’s Howard Strickling were employed to cover up or solve incidents that threatened to tarnish the reputations of stars and the studios they were associated with. The recurring motif of The Wizard of Oz in Alchemy of Secrets is a reminder of the contrast between “Hollywood stardust” and its darker realities. While playing the character of Dorothy, the film’s 16-year-old star, Judy Garland, allegedly experienced forced amphetamine consumption and sexual assaults by MGM’s producer Louis B. Mayer.