The Dead Circus is a neo-noir

Neo-noir

Neo-noir is a style often seen in modern motion pictures and other forms that prominently utilize elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in films noir of the 1940s and 1950s.-History:The term Film Noir was coined by...

 crime novel set in 1960s-80s Los Angeles by John Kaye

John Kaye (screenwriter)

John Kaye is an American screenwriter, novelist and playwright. His feature credits as a screenwriter include American Hot Wax, Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins and Where the Buffalo Roam. He also directed the feature film Forever Lulu, starring Melanie Griffith and Patrick Swayze. A graduate of U.C...

. The novel was shortlisted by the New York Times for their Book of the Year list in 2003.

Plot details

It is set in 1986 and following the storyline of Kaye's first novel Stars Screaming, Gene Burk has just lost his fiancee in an airplane crash. Afraid that he will lose himself entirely to his grief, Gene starts to obsess over the 20-year-old mysterious death of rockabilly newcomer Bobby Fuller. He had worked the case, unsuccessfully, when he was a cop with the LAPD, and as he begins to reopen old leads, he starts to shake up the wrong people, putting his own life in danger. Gene is then contacted by Alice McMillan, a former member of the Manson family who needs his help in putting that life behind her once and for all. They ultimately venture off together into Death Valley

Death Valley

Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...

 in search of Charles Manson

Charles Manson

Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...

's 16mm snuff film

Snuff film

A snuff film is a motion picture genre that depicts the actual death or murder of a person or people, without the aid of special effects, for the express purpose of distribution and entertainment or financial exploitation. For-profit snuff films are generally regarded as an urban legend, whose...

s that may contain the answers Gene is looking for regarding the circumstances of Fuller's death.

Film adaptation

A big screen adaptation of the novel is in active development, which will mark the feature debut of Adam Davenport

Adam Davenport

Adam Davenport is an American film director, screenwriter and stage director.-Author:At 15, Davenport wote a short story titled Home which was published in the anthology Looking Inward, for which he was presented with an Award of Achievement by former President George Bush, Sr. in 1999...

 and John Palermo at Fox will produce. Melissa Leo

Melissa Leo

Melissa Chessington Leo , is an American actress. After appearing on several television shows and films in the late '80s, her breakthrough role came in 1993 as Det. Sgt. Kay Howard on the television series Homicide: Life on the Street for the show's first five seasons from 1993 – 1997...

 has been cast as Alice McMillan, and James Marsden

James Marsden

James Paul Marsden is an American actor, singer and former Versace model. He is known for playing the superhero Cyclops in the first three X-Men films and for his roles in other commercially successful films such as Hop, Superman Returns, Hairspray, Enchanted, The Box, and 27 Dresses.-Early life...

 has been cast as Charles Manson

Charles Manson

Charles Milles Manson is an American criminal who led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. He was found guilty of conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders carried out by members of the group at his instruction...

; Michael C. Hall

Michael C. Hall

Michael Carlyle Hall is an American actor whose television roles include David Fisher on the HBO drama series Six Feet Under and Dexter Morgan on the Showtime series Dexter. In 2009, Hall won a Golden Globe award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his role in Dexter.-Early life:Hall was born in...

is also attached.

External links

• Review of the novel in the New York Times