Santa Maria resident and film industry veteran Tony Piazza has done Anything Short of Murder. That’s the title of his new detective novel, recently published by Dog Ear Press.
Inspired by pulp novels and film noir classics, the story follows a former LAPD cop as he investigates a murder against the backdrop of the Golden Age of Hollywood, “when movies began to talk and studio heads were kings.”
The story that would eventually become Anything Short of Murder first came to light last May, on the website of cable network Turner Classic Movies (TCM). It was serialized in a blog in the fan community section known as the “Classic Film Union.”
“I wanted to capture some the nostalgia and glamour of Hollywood,” Piazza said. “I thought, ‘This will play great with readers on Turner.’ They were into noir crime dramas from the 1930s and ’40s. I came up with a Raymond Chandler-type thriller, which I called Reel Murder. It has a lot to do with how movie studios work. I brought in [historical] characters and spots from 1930s Hollywood. [The blog] was voted one of top favorites of that time on the website. When I started to take the story seriously, people were writing in, saying ‘Why don’t you turn this into a novel?’”
That expansion nearly doubled the length of the story, from 34,555 words to 62,600. Piazza commented that the transition wasn’t as difficult as he thought it would be.
“I had to abbreviate [the story] in the blog,” he explained. “All I had to do was expand it in the novel—throw in twists, add in more action, different locations.”
He also changed the ending to preserve the mystery element for those who’d already read the blog version. The transition to novel form took place between July and August of last year, and now the book is on the printed page, just nine months after it was born online.
“Once I get started,” the author explained, “I don’t have any distractions. … There’s no place like the Central Coast. I don’t think I’d be able to write in the city. … What brought us to Santa Maria was my in-laws. They were here and loved the area. I don’t regret making the move.”
This isn’t the first novel attempt for Piazza, who holds a degree in biology from San Francisco State University and works as assistant to the quality assurance manager at food safety laboratory Primus Labs in Santa Maria. When the author was 9, he attempted to hammer one out on a portable typewriter.
“I ended up with nothing but a big pile of crumpled up paper,” he said.
In a sense, he’d been preparing for his successful novel for years without even knowing it. He and the movie business go a long way back—he’s been “on and off movie sets” since he was 4.
Piazza was born and raised in the Bay Area. His father worked for the police department as a liaison for Hollywood movie studios.
“Having a father that was also police officer,” Piazza said, “I was also raised around a lot of law enforcement and understood a lot about guns and procedure. Our neighbor was on the homicide bureau.”
The author worked in the film industry 10 years in the 1970s as an actor, extra, and stand-in. He worked on The Towering Inferno and Days of Wine and Roses, and such TV shows as The Untouchables, Invaders, Barnaby Jones, and The Streets of San Francisco.
“I worked all five years on it, as an auxiliary stand-in,” he said of Streets. “I was Michael Douglas’ stand in, Richard Hatch’s stand-in. I had some onscreen performances as a police officer. And I photo-doubled Larry Hagman.”
More recently, he was an extra in Sideways, a 2004 film set in Central Coast wine country.
Working with other industry professionals, from hairstylists to stunt people, informed his creative writing. He used “a lot of little traits” from the people he remembers as inspiration for his characters.
The novel takes readers to some iconic Los Angeles locations—including the Santa Monica Pier and the Hollywood Bowl—as well as to legendary landmarks that no longer exist, like the Cocoanut Grove nightclub (the remains of which are now part of a school auditorium) and the Brown Derby restaurant. (There was actually a chain of Brown Derbys, a fact brought up in the novel.)
Piazza’s research included watching old footage of the sights and looking at pictures of menus. He noted that, in particular, he wanted to make the scene in the Brown Derby as realistic as possible.
His wife Susan, who grew up in L.A., had been to some of the bygone spots, including the Derby, and also helped his investigation into authenticity.
“A lot of people who read the blog say I got the details right,” he said.
Piazza also wanted to be true to the genre that inspired him.
“I wanted it to be like what audiences would have read back in the ’40s,” he said. “I didn’t emphasize profanity and violence.”
When asked if he’d ever imagined his novel being turned into a movie, he commented that Hollywood is often reluctant to work on a period piece unless it’s guaranteed to be a big hit, because of the cost involved.
“If somebody wants to make one,” he added, “I wouldn’t say no.”
He thinks his second book, currently in the works, might be more cinematically adaptable.
Keeping up his whirlwind pace, the author has currently written up to chapter 17 of a planned 24.
“It would make a great movie,” he said of his new project, “because it’s more of an action adventure. It’s set on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. It’s almost like an Indiana Jones-type thing. I don’t know where I come up with these things, but I do.”
Arts Editor Shelly Cone hates keeping a whirlwind pace. Contact her slowly at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 3-10, 2011.