Tonight! The Charlie Manson Band
GENRE
CRIME DETECTIVE DRAMA THRILLER
Core Theme
BELIEVING IN FALSE IDOLS
TIME PERIOD
1960s & '70s
COMPARABLE TITLES
AQUARIUS, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
CHARACTER LIST
• ALEX SWAIN: 26. LEAD. DETERMINED, SMART, DECISIVE, EMPATHETIC, BRAVE.
• CHARLES MANSON: 20S. CULT LEADER, MUSICIAN, AND MURDERER WHOM THE LEAD INVESTIGATES.
• MARV FIELD: 37. DOGGED RECORD PROMOTER WHO BELIEVES IN MANSON'S MUSIC BUT GETS SCREWED OVER.
• SHERRIE, 17: INNOCENT AND NAIVE, SHE GETS MIXED UP WITH MANSON AND REGRETS IT.
Logline
What if Charles Manson, cult leader and aspiring rock musician, had escaped suspicion for the gruesome Cielo Drive murders in 1969 Los Angeles? Major players in LA were interested in his talents. This book is a taut pulp fiction based on actual events, real persons, and the frantic world of 1969 LA.
Target Audiences
Age: 18-34,35-54,55+
Target Gender: Universal
Setting
Los Angeles 1969
Based on a True Story
Yes
Publishing Details
Status: Yes: with a Publisher
Publisher: Amazon
Year Published: 2012
Starting Description
In the dark days of 1969 Charles Manson - hippy pimp, party troubadour, and dealer to the rock music insiders of LA - meets Marv Feld, a man whose schemes can take them to the top of the pop charts. But Charlie is hiding a monstrous secret.
Ending Description
Alex Swain, a rising star in the new world of rock journalism, begins to uncover ghastly tales and rumors while covering Manson's bid for pop stardom.Burning ambitions crash and the horrible madness of Manson's secret world is unleashed bit by bit. A torrent of violence is unleashed.
Group Specific
rock fans, LA fans, Manson interest, sixties fans
Hard Copy Available
Yes
ISBN
1481055887
Mature Audience Themes
Nudity,Extreme Violence, Language/Profanity
Plot - Other Elements
Twist
Plot - Premise
Quest
Main Character Details
Name: Alex Swain
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Role: Protagonist
Key Traits: Aspiring,Aggressive,Confident,Empathetic,Engaging,Educated,Honorable,Naive,Skillful,Visionary,Sophisticated,Strong Moral Code,Unapologetic,Lone Wolf
Additional Character Details
Name: Marv Feld
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Role: Antagonist
Key Traits: Aspiring,Aggressive,Confident,Desperate,Greedy,Naive,Uneducated,Blunt,Power Hungry,Outspoken,Skillful,Visionary,Secretive,Manipulative,Unapologetic,Lone Wolf
Additional Character Details
Name: Sherrie Caster
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Role: emotional
Key Traits: Clumsy,Desperate,Empathetic,Faithful,Insecure,Naive,Underdog,Obedient,Selfless,Romantic
Additional Character Details
The author has not yet written this
Brief
What if Charles Manson, cult leader and aspiring rock musician, had escaped suspicion for the gruesome Cielo Drive murders in 1969 Los Angeles? Major players in LA were interested in his talents. This book is a taut pulp fiction based on actual events, real people, and the frantic world of 1969 LA.
What We Liked
- There aren't many figures in recent history as notorious and fascinating as Charles Manson. This novel reimagines the events such as the murders at the house on Cielo and Manson's music career. It's a fun (tragic and gory) read. The thrall he held over people is mind boggling and his "family" is full of interesting characters and strange scenarios;
- From the POV of anyone normal, this is a twisted circus one should stay far away from - and makes for fascinating viewing especially since, in this fictionalized story, you don't know what is going to happen;
- Murder, Cults, Twists and turns, Sex, Music.
Synopsis
Charles Manson holds court at a borrowed ranch in the desert, where he is the undisputed master, somehow holding all different types of people in his thrall.
Coercion and violence are just part of their lives now, along with a lot of drugs and sex.
Spurned by record people and even Beach Boy Brian Wilson, Manson only has his people to play his music for. When a record producer gets behind him in a big way, he becomes an overnight sensation.
A reporter, Swain, is attracted to this very unique commune and plans to write a story. When he starts to sniff out that Manson's people were the ones who murdered five innocents in the Hills, everything changes. He is excommunicated, but wants to write a story for his magazine and expose the criminal conspiracy that has left LA shaken.
One of Manson's girls, 17 year-old Sherrie, flees the family and comes to Swain for protection. She spills her guts about the murders in the hills and a couple others at the ranch. The family steals her back, and Alex goes to the ranch and finds it burning. Sherrie was murdered and the scene is like the apocalypse that Manson has been waiting for, although this wasn't done by the Black Panthers.
Manson and a couple others make it out on dune buggies while a bus with 20 of his family members explodes in flames. Manson, cold and starving, hides out far into the desert, playing music and falling deeper into insanity.