Killing writer's block
Steven Bochco: Death By Hollywood
Creator of Hill Street Blues, Murder One and NYPD Blue, Bochco knows a thing or two about storytelling. So it's hardly a surprise that the strength of his debut novel is its plot.
A down-on-his-luck screenwriter spies a murder and, spotting a way out of writer's block, inveigles himself into the investigation in order to steal it for his next script. Bochco's first mistake was to make this a novel, not a movie; his second was to filter the narrative through the eyes of a Hollywood agent for the sake of a lame final twist. Otherwise it's a brisk, too easy read in which, unfortunately, Bochco finally exposes his limitations.
