As Dead As It Gets

I used to live in LA - and really enjoyed the visit back - especially to the Hollywood area. Fun story. I agree with other reviewers in that there were so many characters that I got a bit confused. Also, the ending left a few lose ends....getting those sewn up would have been nice. However, I still give it 5 stars because any book that holds my interest through to the end gets top rating! Worthwhile read.

I got tons of flashbacks to DATING IS MURDER and SAVAGE GARDEN while reading this. Was it the LA setting? The constant driving and descriptions of cars? Though this was a murder mystery, I was in no hurry to see it end and have the crime solved. The victim was not a sympathetic character, and the heroine had so many funny side stories and tangential repartees that reading didn't feel compulsive like a good whodunit should, it was more like I'll keep on reading to hear more funny one-liners. I loved the roommate, Leroy, and the heroine in the heroine's movie script, the crime wasn't that gripping to me.

A diabetic protaginist was an interesting differentiation. The L.A. setting was done well for me; I usually find the area geographically confusing to follow in books. I recommend the book, and would definitely read a sequel. A couple of quibbles though ... the love triangle thing was done by Janet Evanovich (Stephanie Plum series), and gets old fast. Also, I realize that in mystery series the author throws out more names to the reader than in "regular" fiction, but I was reeling through the first couple of chapters until it became clearer who the key players would be.

Former New York investigative journalist Maggie Mars got her big break with an article that brought her to Hollywood as a screenwriter. In Los Angeles she is working on a script involving what else but an investigative reporter. Maggie also belongs to the Creative Artists Union affectionately called COW by the CAU members. However, when CAU executive director Roger Urban is found dead in a bathtub garbed only in a garter belt and bra, Maggie's previous "life" kicks in as she needs to investigate. Her former lover back in New York, but now part of LAPD, Joe Camanetti warns her to stay out of his official investigation as he knows Maggie will snoop. Unable not to sleuth, Maggie begins making inquiries finding Urban was a sleaze and being warned to back out of the case by an unknown adversary. When an apparent related suicide occurs, LAPD claims the case solved, but Maggie says no way and soon the killer targets the nosy Maggie. AS DEAD AS IT GETS is a fun Hollywood investigative tale that follows the adventures of a heroine whose former lover and her father plead with her to stop her sleuthing. Maggie makes the tale as a courageous individual obsessed with solving the homicide. Having a roommate who is the queen of Hollywood gossip is in some ways too convenient, but readers will not care as Lionel's light gossipy banter adds to the locale and the feel of a delightful lighthearted Hollywood (and Manhattan) murder mystery. Harriet Klausner