In both the Navarro case and the Willie Marsh chapter the evil characters were invited over and they both were looking for a score of $5000. Navarro also invited some young visitors over and that didn't turn out well for him, either. This chapter is obviously semi-based on the Manson murders and the murder of Ramon Navarro. Well, it all turns out very badly for Willie. A friend of theirs also comes over: a Charles Manson type named Arco. The young man comes with his date (a brainless hippie bimbo) on the wrong night, but Willie lets them in anyway. Willie says he's having a get together soon and that he can come and bring a date if he likes (Willie is not looking for sex he's just a nice man, a genial host). At a party he meets a young man who says he would like to see his art collection. He's developing a drinking problem and in his loneliness associates with people he would be best to avoid. Willie is a star from a bygone era who is lonely and adrift after the death of his domineering, stage mother wife Bea. Running away from legal problems she goes to a Mexican resort where she wreaks havoc and proceeds to crack up in spectacular fashion. Lorna Doone is a pyromaniac, a kleptomaniac and compulsively promiscuous, not necessarily in that order. The most lurid chapters are the ones about Lorna Doone, an aging B-movie sexpot, and Willie Marsh, a revered Golden Age Hollywood star. Someone said CH was 'trashy' and it does contain a lot of over the top scenes but it's still a good read.

The final chapter of 'Crowned Head', entitled 'Salad Days' was a lovely epilogue featuring all of the doomed characters from the book (Fedora, Lorna Doone, Bobbitt and Willie Marsh) in better days. I think the gimmick was just how he tied the four stories together.' 'I haven't read Crowned Heads in Decades,, but I remember enjoying it even with the unlikely plot points.

Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon