This fast-paced nov­el details the dele­te­ri­ous, life- chang­ing effects of Sen­a­tor Joe McCarthy’s anti-com­mu­nist cam­paign on the writ­ers, actors, and direc­tors of Hollywood. 

“Fade in” to 1957 when Isabel­la Giori, an unknown new actress, has recent­ly begun a stan­dard sev­en year stu­dio con­tract and is sent to audi­tion for Alfred Hitch­cock. She finds her­self ban­ished to a cot­tage in remote Carmel-by-the-Sea, miles away from Hol­ly­wood, and though she must remain unseen for the dura­tion of her seclu­sion, she soon befriends her next door neigh­bor, Leon Chaz­an. He is an enig­ma, typ­ing away at home or on the beach to cre­ate yet anoth­er screen­play that he can­not sell direct­ly. Leon has been black­list­ed for ​“tak­ing the Fifth,” refus­ing to name pos­si­ble com­mu­nists in the Hol­ly­wood world for the Feds to inter­ro­gate. Leon’s obsti­na­cy con­demns him to a life of sell­ing scripts for a frac­tion of their worth to less tal­ent­ed writ­ers, who take the cred­it for his genius. Leon assumes that Isabel­la is in the same sit­u­a­tion and coun­sels her to name names that are already known. She is ter­ri­fied to be seen with him, a black­list­ed writer, fear­ing that this would ruin her bur­geon­ing career. 

Fast for­ward to 2018, when young Gem­ma Chaz­an, grand­daugh­ter of Leon, comes to his cot­tage to clear it out after his pass­ing. Gem­ma was raised by Leon after her mother’s death, and she and Leon, aka ​“Gran,” had a lov­ing rela­tion­ship. Gem­ma unex­pect­ed­ly finds clues to a fam­i­ly past she nev­er knew about and the mys­tery of Leon’s life begins to unfold. She dis­cov­ers a Euro­pean pass­port and many scripts, plus an unde­vel­oped roll of film that rais­es many more ques­tions to be answered.

Gos­sip about celebri­ties abounds in this nov­el and read­ers may assume that it’s based on truth, includ­ing their con­nec­tions to the ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tions as well as their per­son­al lives. Par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­turb­ing is the way women were treat­ed, long before the ​“Me too” move­ment. There are anec­dotes about young women seek­ing legit­i­mate careers being sex­u­al­ly abused by those in pow­er, with no recourse what­so­ev­er. Lives are upend­ed; some are even lost. Women are sub­ject­ed to ille­gal abor­tions or forced to give up new­borns for adop­tion. Of course, these rules did not apply to the men whose names con­tin­ued to appear on mar­quees even through divorce and ille­git­i­mate fatherhood. 

The author describes set­tings and moods in vivid detail, let­ting read­ers imag­ine being sur­round­ed by the nat­ur­al beau­ty of Carmel-by-the-Sea. Type­writer Beach is a fas­ci­nat­ing look into a recent piece of Amer­i­can his­to­ry that is so rel­e­vant in today’s polit­i­cal and social climate.