Book Description
The House of Sin and Splendor so named by triple threat entertainer Betsy Bellweather a vaudeville sensation who became a popular silent film star; one who not only made the successful transition to talkies but dominated them, becoming the top money-maker for famous film producer Edric Mazewell owner of her sumptuous mansion home. The star vanished without trace immediately following one of her hedonistic parties notorious among Hollywood insiders after a particularly reprehensible rape including a murder and suicide. Once Betsy's secret life was revealed her family friendly image was ruined along with her career. The mansion already possessed an unsavory history stemming from the 1800's. A brutal Madam operated a high-end bordello with a stable of young women all under twenty years of age; many of whom were kidnapped or runaways. Their job was to service prominent men in all ways imaginable, sometimes at the cost of their lives. Film producer Edric Mazewell often bragged of joyfully turning from a boy into a man within its walls. Betsy loved the mansion and eagerly became its tenant until her disappearance. Fast forward to 1980 a blue collar couple Arlene and Wade Rawlerson win their state's first lotto jackpot ever. The couple moves to Los Angeles to fulfill a fantasy of inhabiting a lavish abode once belonging to a movie star. To their dismay, they discover that what is considered rich back home is only modestly well-to-do there. Impressed by its colorful history they purchase the Mazewell mansion now in ruins with the intent to restore it to its former glory. The couple intends to flip it, making a financial windfall enabling them to enjoy the Hollywood lifestyle they had first envisioned. However the mansion is home to spirits unable to find peace. And Arlene, the wife brings her own as well. Eventually, Arlene comes to accept and embrace her long suppressed gift of clairvoyance.
