Suspend belief and get ready for a wild ride. My only issue with the book is it feels disjointed and a little too slick. 'The Empty Glass' is as film ready as anything Chandler wrote. You can feel the streets of 1960's Los Angeles breath. Sadly he's only one step ahead of his pursuers.and sometimes a half a step behind. It's his love, especially for his son, that keeps Fitzgerald moving in his investigation. His family is his Achilles heel and a tool for the bad guys to use. He's had prior scuffles at work so he's perfect to play the fall guy especially since he won't let this murder mystery alone. His descriptions of the city add depth.įitzgerald is portrayed as a family man with an estranged wife and a young son he loves. Baker's sense of place and time is extraordinary. Baker includes theories and the why's behind those theories that I'd never heard before and they don't sound like mad innuendo. the Kennedy's connection to Marilyn, US relations with Cuba, possible LAPD corruption, speculation about the role of the Mafia, and possible FBI involvement in Monroe's death, etc. In fact the book covers some old ground i.e. I love how Baker intersperses political and historical information into the story. Why did it take 5 hours to contact police? Who are all the people in her home when police arrive? Why does the body position look `staged'? It's August 5th, 1962 and Marilyn Monroe has just been found dead in her Brentwood bungalow. We're kept guessing who Deputy Coroner Fitzgerald is recounting his story to. 'The Empty Glass' is an interesting murder mystery told from an unusual perspective.

The Empty Glass by J.I. Baker