This unusual Dorothy Hughes novel puts a group of Hollywood scorpions in a bottle in the form of a train hurtling between Los Angeles and New York City. Producer Vivien Spender has orchestrated this trip for a premiere with his long-suffering assistant Mike Dana, Kitten Agnew, the star he has made, and the star-waiting-in-the-wings, Gratia Shaw. Spender’s lifelong dream is to bring Thomas Mann’s ‘The Magic Mountain’ to film, but he has never been able to settle on a leading lady; each actress he sets out to cultivate inevitably disappoints and he moves on to another. On this trip, he is done with Kitten and ready to replace her with Gratia—in his work and in the public eye—and he will stop at nothing to get rid of Kitten. To Spender every woman is disposable once she has served her purpose. Kitten has figured Spender out, however, and her trip is a series of attempts to enlist other movie hangers-on to protect her from Viv’s plans. Will Viv Spender be able to switch one woman for another younger, more innocent one? And if he can, what are the consequences? Spenser’s ambition and ruthlessness are shocking even now, post-Me Too Movement, and it’s not hard to put Harvey Weinstein’s face on the character. Thank goodness the character of Pullman porter James Cobbett centers the book and provides humanity and perspective. A fascinating postwar perspective on art, ambition, and whether women’s lives have value.