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Money, Murder, and Dominick Dunne
A Life in Several Acts
Robert Hofler
“Hofler gives us much more than a volume of entertainment-world gossip. He has spent a good deal of time exploring Dominick’s personal journals and letters, and has produced, amidst the juicy dish, a distinguished biography of a brilliant and complex man.”
—Financial Times
Though Dominick Dunne seemed to live his entire adult life in the public eye, Robert Hofler reveals a conflicted, enigmatic man who reinvented himself again and again. Dunne was, in turn, a television and film producer, Vanity Fair journalist, and author of best-selling novels. Money, Murder, and Dominick Dunne brings to light a number of his difficult and tragic relationships: his intense rivalry with his brother, gay lovers he hid throughout his life, and fights with his editors. Hofler discusses the painful rift in the family after the murder of Dunne’s daughter, Dominique—and Dunne’s coverage of her killer’s trial, which launched his career as a reporter.
 Robert Hofler is the lead theater critic at TheWrap and the author of The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson, Party Animals, and Sexplosion: How a Generation of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos. He lives in New York City.
Author’s website: http://roberthofler.com/
Praise
“Hofler has found in the subject of Dominick Dunne several strands that make up a fascinating portrait of American culture from the 1950s to the present. One of them is the closet. Another is Dunne’s (and our) obsession with celebrity. Another is simply the incredible violence in American life.”
—Gay & Lesbian Review
“Hofler gives us much more than a volume of entertainment-world gossip. He has spent a good deal of time exploring Dominick’s personal journals and letters, and has produced, amidst the juicy dish, a distinguished biography of a brilliant and complex man.”
—Lambda Literary Review
“An excellent biography of a Hollywood life with all its success and failure in detail.”
—New York Social Diary
“Hofler proves to be an apt and entertaining chronicler of Dunne's eventful, turbulent, and often sorrowful life. . . . A spirited biography of a complicated, combative, self-aggrandizing, and tormented man.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“You've met the two Mrs. Grenvilles. Now meet the two Dominick Dunnes, or three, or four. Robert Hofler stunningly captures all of them.”
—Stephen M. Silverman,author of David Lean
“Dominick Dunne had a front-row seat at the birth of our current celebrity culture. He chronicled its rise with an unsparing eye to detail and an emotional intensity that often said as much about him as it did those he wrote about. Robert Hofler has captured the wit, charm, pomposity, strength, and vulnerability that made Dunne such a complex and fascinating man.”
—William J. Mann, author of Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn
“Sweeping in scope and intimate in tone, this biography of Dominick Dunne is truly a life and times story, filled to bursting with notorious crimes and glam parties, high-society doyens and spats, Hollywood celebrities minor and major, and, beneath it all, the tragedies and mysteries that made this singular man tick.”
—Patrick McGilligan, author of Young Orson
“The life of Dominick Dunne as recounted by Robert Hofler is as entertaining as it is tragic. Hofler digs in to reveal each telling detail and scandalous anecdote, which no one would appreciate more than Dunne himself. It’s a knowing read about fame, the upper class, sexuality, and the struggle for immortality.”
—Sharon Waxman, author of Rebels on the Backlot
“With clear-eyed precision, Hofler cuts through Dunne’s love of hyperbole and drama to reveal the man: his sometimes charming, sometimes chilling mix of humanity and harmfulness. A probing, fascinating dissection of ambition and American privilege.”
—Tracy Daugherty, author of The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion
“A skillfully crafted story of a vivid character who was a master of self-destruction and reinvention.”
—Peter Bart, author of Fade Out
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