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The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Historical fiction

The Seventh Veil of Salome

by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

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Quick take

Competition is fierce in Golden Age Hollywood for fame and fortune, but are the sacrifices worth the glitz and glamor?

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Multiple_Viewpoints

    Multiple viewpoints

  • Illustrated icon, Feminist

    Feminist

  • Illustrated icon, Movieish

    Movieish

  • Illustrated icon, Glamorous

    Glamorous

Synopsis

1950s Hollywood: Every actress wants to play Salome, the star-making role in a big-budget movie about the legendary woman whose story has inspired artists since ancient times.

So when the film’s mercurial director casts Vera Larios, an unknown Mexican ingénue, in the lead role, she quickly becomes the talk of the town. Vera also becomes an object of envy for Nancy Hartley, a bit player whose career has stalled and who will do anything to win the fame she believes she richly deserves.

Two actresses, both determined to make it to the top in Golden Age Hollywood—a city overflowing with gossip, scandal, and intrigue—make for a sizzling combination.

But this is the tale of three women, for it is also the story of the princess Salome herself, consumed with desire for the fiery prophet who foretells the doom of her stepfather, Herod: a woman torn between the decree of duty and the yearning of her heart.

Before the curtain comes down, there will be tears and tragedy aplenty in this sexy Technicolor saga.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of The Seventh Veil of Salome.

The Seventh Veil of Salome

Joe Kantor

I’d spent most of the day tucked away at the Musso & Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard, working through a pile of notes. Its high-backed, padded red leather booths were the perfect hiding spot for harried writers trying to clobber their way through script changes and, boy, did I have script changes.

Some folks called Max Niemann a bully and others called him a genius. I called him an obsessive workaholic. I was laboring on yet another draft of The Seventh Veil of Salome, and I was the third writer that Niemann had hired. His propensity for new notes was enough to send any scribe howling out the door, but I didn’t mind him. Previously, I’d done work for other directors of note: Howard Hawks, who liked to mutter disparaging comments about Jews, and I’d had to stomach Michael Curtiz’s creative barrage of hyphenated insults—no-good-son-of-a-bitch—ad nauseam. Niemann didn’t think highly enough of writers to abuse them, reserving his barbs for his actors and assistants, so I was in a relatively serene state of mind.

After a couple of whiskey sours and a plate of grilled lamb kidneys, I tucked my portable Smith-Corona Sterling into its case and headed back to the studio to deliver the pages Niemann had been asking about. Pacific Pictures was a midsize player. The gorillas in the business were MGM, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Bros. The crown jewels of Hollywood. Then you had RKO, Universal, Columbia, and of course Pacific Pictures. We were not providers of Poverty Row fare, like Grand National, but we didn’t have MGM’s dazzling facilities, either. We made a heck of a lot of mindless comedies, our share of corny romances and dramas, and a couple of big-budget opuses each year. Just as you’d expect, like clockwork.

Things were changing, though, in more than one way, around town. The antitrust case against the majors dealt a blow to the mega studios, and TV was picking up speed and viewers. Charlie Chaplin sold his studio at La Brea after being declared persona non grata in the US, and a bunch of writers decamped to Mexico for fear of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. I’d stayed put. HUAC had lots of us spooked, but I needed the work, and work meant living in Hollywood.

So, nu, anyway, that’s not what your documentary is about, I know. Salome, let’s talk about her.

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Why I love it

To me, there’s nothing better than a novel set in 1950s Hollywood: the swift rise of a pretty young thing to starlet, the behind-the-scenes jealousies and backstabbing, and the glitzy sheen of vintage Los Angeles from the cavernous stage sets to Schwab’s soda fountain.

Vera, the reserved, opera-loving heroine of The Seventh Veil of Salome, is an unlikely choice for stardom at first glance. The fact that Vera was “discovered” in Mexico doesn’t help matters in a society where prejudice is rampant and gossip rules the day, notching up the pressure on Vera to conform as she struggles to maintain her equilibrium and sense of self-worth.

Silvia Moreno-Garcia adds even more layers by weaving the biblical story of Salome through the 1950s plotline. In doing so, she deftly explores how, throughout time, beautiful women have been “chosen” by men in power to titillate and perform, or have betrayed each other in order to secure a modicum of power for themselves. The cinematic, powerful ending will leave you breathless, almost as if you’ve just performed the dance of the seven veils yourself.

This book has it all: romance, intrigue, and thrills, rounded out by a cast of complicated characters who sizzle on the page. Dive on in!

Other books by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Member ratings (877)

Historical fiction
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
The Women
Husbands & Lovers
Shelterwood
A Thousand Times Before
All We Were Promised
Spitting Gold
The Seventh Veil of Salome
The Mayor of Maxwell Street
The Great Divide
The Storm We Made
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
Lessons in Chemistry
The Frozen River
What We Kept to Ourselves
Take My Hand
The Last Russian Doll
The First Ladies
The House Is On Fire
River Sing Me Home
The Attic Child
Malibu Rising
The Book of Longings
Hester
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
The Nightingale
Daisy Jones & The Six
The Lincoln Highway
The Secret Book of Flora Lea
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
The Circus Train
Peach Blossom Spring
Hang the Moon
Booth
The Good Left Undone
The Perishing
The Family
Things We Lost to the Water
The Spectacular
Still Life
Send for Me
The Magnolia Palace
The Bookbinder
China Room
This Tender Land
Atomic Love
All the Light We Cannot See
The Vanishing Half
Outlawed
The Four Winds
Independence
The Fountains of Silence
Libertie
Queen of Thieves
The Great Believers
The Clockmaker's Daughter
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Great Alone
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Rules of Civility
Circling the Sun
The Moor's Account
Jacqueline in Paris
Don't Cry for Me
The Christie Affair
Bloomsbury Girls
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
Bronze Drum
Historical fiction
View all
Lady Tan’s Circle of Women
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
The Women
Husbands & Lovers
Shelterwood
A Thousand Times Before
All We Were Promised
Spitting Gold
The Seventh Veil of Salome
The Mayor of Maxwell Street
The Great Divide
The Storm We Made
The Disappearance of Astrid Bricard
Lessons in Chemistry
The Frozen River
What We Kept to Ourselves
Take My Hand
The Last Russian Doll
The First Ladies
The House Is On Fire
River Sing Me Home
The Attic Child
Malibu Rising
The Book of Longings
Hester
The Final Revival of Opal & Nev
The Nightingale
Daisy Jones & The Six
The Lincoln Highway
The Secret Book of Flora Lea
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
The Circus Train
Peach Blossom Spring
Hang the Moon
Booth
The Good Left Undone
The Perishing
The Family
Things We Lost to the Water
The Spectacular
Still Life
Send for Me
The Magnolia Palace
The Bookbinder
China Room
This Tender Land
Atomic Love
All the Light We Cannot See
The Vanishing Half
Outlawed
The Four Winds
Independence
The Fountains of Silence
Libertie
Queen of Thieves
The Great Believers
The Clockmaker's Daughter
A Gentleman in Moscow
The Great Alone
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
Rules of Civility
Circling the Sun
The Moor's Account
Jacqueline in Paris
Don't Cry for Me
The Christie Affair
Bloomsbury Girls
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
Bronze Drum