The story is told in first person by Ben Fitzgerald and it is a sometimes confusing mixture of past and present events.

The Empty Glass is a very unusual yet extremely compelling mystery. When subsequent reports do not match up with the evidence, Ben investigates the days preceding her death and what he uncovers is as unbelievable as it is shocking. County deputy coroner Ben Fitzgerald’s arrival at Marilyn’s bungalow in the early morning hours of August 5, 1962. Baker blends fact, fiction and conjecture about Marilyn Monroe’s death into an intriguing mystery that is full of twists and turns. It is an exciting debut from a remarkable new thriller writer. The Empty Glass is an unforgettable combination of the riveting facts and legendary theories that have dogged Monroe, the Kennedy’s, the Mafia, and even the CIA for decades.

Soon the sinister and surreal accounts in The Book of Secrets bleed into Ben’s own life, and he finds himself, like Monroe, trapped in a deepening paranoid conspiracy. There he discovers The Book of Secrets – Marilyn Monroe’s diary – revealing a doomed love affair with a man she refers to only as “The General.” In the following days, Ben unravels a wide-ranging cover-up and some heartbreaking truths about the fragile, luminous woman behind the celebrity. In the early-morning hours of August 5, 1962, Los Angeles County deputy coroner Ben Fitzgerald arrives at the home of the world’s most famous movie star, now lying dead in her bedroom, naked and still clutching a telephone.

Review Copy Obtained from Publisher Through NetGalley Genre: Historical (60s), Mystery, Suspense Publisher: Penguin Group USA/Blue Rider Press

The Empty Glass by J.I. Baker