This may be the first and only novel I paired with a fragrance -- Caswell Massey's "Marem" (1914) created for Alla Nazimova, who features in this Tim Powers novel. Four cousins, two who are siblings whose parents disappeared in 1991, reunite in a house in Whitley Heights, Hollywood's Historic District shortly after its owner blew herself up on its roof. They all experienced mind-bending, some cases mind-warping, time travel from looking at "spiders": pieces of paper with arachnid-like shapes, to Los Angeles, chasing down a film reputed to exorcise viewers from "spider bites," yet possibly with fatal consequences.

I have a deep interest in 1920s Hollywood, so the premise of [i]Medusa's Web[/i] compelled me to read this, especially the "old, dark house on a rainy night" opening. I enjoyed this enough to recommend to friends, so four stars.