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Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: AudiobookHub Recommendation
Chapter 2: — The Lost Film in the Desert
Chapter 3: — A Star “Kills Herself”
Chapter 4: — The Necklace Hides the Rope
Chapter 5: — Accidents, Curses, and the First Threat
Chapter 6: — The Resurrectionist Dies
Chapter 7: — The Voodoo House and the Gun in the Dark
Chapter 8: — The City Burns, the Vault Burns, the Boss Dies
Chapter 9: — The Cliff, the Knife, the Wrong Cove
Chapter 10: — The Monster Was the Star
Description
The Devil’s Playground moves between two timelines: 1927 Hollywood, where studio fixer Mary Rourke is pulled into a cover-up that turns into a murder investigation, and 1967, where film historian Dr. Paul Conway tracks a rumored surviving print of a legendary lost silent horror film.
As Mary uncovers that the movie star Norma Carlton didn’t die by suicide—she was strangled—she collides with studio corruption, secret societies, missing young women, and a ritualistic underground world built on power, blackmail, and performance. The deeper she digs, the more the “curse” around the production looks like human evil wearing supernatural costume.
The story crescendos through set-piece catastrophes (a deadly on-set collapse, a disastrous inferno shoot, and a vault fire) and lands on a chilling reveal: the monster wasn’t the film’s demon—it was the person who mastered reinvention, control, and resurrection.
Who Should Listen
- Listeners who love Hollywood noir and behind-the-scenes studio intrigue with a strong investigative throughline.
- Fans of layered mysteries that blend true-film-history textures (lost silents, studio fixers, early talkies) with occult-adjacent dread.
- Anyone who enjoys dual-timeline crime stories where the past’s secrets weaponize the present.