Night Night, Sleep Tight by Hallie Ephron

Night Night, Sleep Tight
by Hallie Ephron

Hallie Ephron inherited her considerable writing talent from her parents, screenwriters Henry and Phoebe Ephron. Their Beverly Hills home was filled with books and their neighborhood was filled with celebrities.

The plot for this novel was inspired by the 1958 murder of Johnny Stompanato that happened just a few blocks from the Ephron home. Stompanato was the gangster boyfriend of Lana Turner and he was stabbed to death by Turner’s teenage daughter, Cheryl. In Ephron’s book, 14 year-old Joelen Nichol kills her mother’s boyfriend. This story does not focus on Joelen but on her friend Deirdre Unger who stayed at Joelen’s that night. Deirdre has a hazy memory of being woken up late in the night and carried down the back stairs of the mansion and being put in her father’s car. Her next memory is of waking up in the hospital with a leg that is so severely broken that she walks with a crutch for the rest of her life. Deirdre always wonders what happened that night and when she drives up to Beverly Hills from her home in San Diego to help her father put his house on market she decides to confront him and out what happened that night.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Luckiest Girl Alive by Jess Knoll.] [ official Hallie Ephron web site ]

Recommended by Donna G.
Virtual Services Department

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