West Orange

West Orange, New Jersey's very own author...

We would like to publicly apologize to John Dandola for listing him on Wikipedia.

Although, we diligently maintained that listing for nearly two years, in the last few months of 2007, vandals (one crackpot, who had nothing to do with Mr. Dandola's accomplishments, actually kept trying to list himself and his family in Mr. Dandola's entry) and would-be "editors" (who kept trying to add erroneous information or subtract accurate information) caused Mr. Dandola so much consternation and made so much unwanted personal contact with him that he finally requested his listing be removed.

In spitefulness, Wikipedia kept all material citing Mr. Dandola but removed his name as the subject or source.

Again, we apologize to him and caution readers about the inaccuracies, unreliability, and downright unpleasantness associated with Wikipedia.

The first of John Dandola's West Orange-based mysteries set in 1940 and featuring actual personalities from West Orange and Hollywood history during the World Premiere of EDISON, THE MAN starring Spencer Tracy.

John Dandola has forgotten more about classic films, how they were made, and the way the Studio System worked during Hollywood's Golden Age than most so-called experts claim to know.

Although it has gone on to such success, DEAD AT THE BOX OFFICE is still so fondly remembered here as WEST OF ORANGE, the novel with the town's name in its title which is how it debuted in May of 1990.

In its holiday issue of 2006, the prestigious MYSTERY SCENE MAGAZINE gives a very positive and extensive mention of John's West Orange novels in an article entitled "Nefarious New Jersey."

Here's an excerpt:

"Every New Jersey schoolchild has taken at least one class trip to the Edison National Historic Site in West Orange….The town got the Hollywood treatment in 1940 when MGM premiered its EDISON, THE MAN here and imported stars Spencer Tracy and Rita Johnson, as well as studio ingénue Ann Rutherford, for the occasion….Through movie publicist Edie Koslow and local barber Tony Del Plato, whose mysterious skills go well beyond hairstyling, [John] Dandola (whose grandfather worked as a messenger boy for the great inventor) presents Edison family history, small-town politics, and Tinsel Town gossip of the period and melds them seamlessly."

This is always the credo of novelists and always the chagrin of those who cross their paths...

Although set in present-day New England, John's WIND series of mystery novels draws much upon West Orange when it deals with political unscrupulousness not to mention that all of the anecdotes, conflicts, back-stabbing, administrative incompetence, and bureaucratic nonsense swirling around the lead character in his job as a teacher actually happened within the West Orange school system.

Our municipal tax dollars may be wasted but John has harvested the sort of material an author just can't make up.

To read a revealing interview with John,

CLICK HERE