Die a Little

A riveting tale of femme fatales, obsessive love, and unexpected double-crosses, Megan Abbott's novel set in the glamorous but duplicitous world of 1950s Hollywood is superbly narrated by Ellen Archer in this complete and unabridged audiobook edition (6.5 hours, 6 CDs). A noir story about a brother, a sister, and the brother's wife with a shady past, Die A Little focuses upon the hostile bond of two women made sisters through marriage. The blood sister takes on the role of amateur detective, in order to dig into the past of her sister-in-law, but the deeper she delves the more potential jeopardy she unleashes. A darkly thrilling and suspenseful story throughout, impressionably revealing the seedier side of show business glamour.

I loved Megan's Abbott's book! It's an achievement. She handles the form as a master. The writing is elegant -- I especially like the rhythms of the catalogs, the litanies; the vivid present tense. And, I like the subtlety with which she weaves her ideas -- the fusion of noir and fifties-suburban-ideal; the feminist take on both genres -- into a fast-paced and entertaining novel. It is cinematic. A great debut.

Schoolteacher Lora King shares a home with her brother Bill, an investigator with the Los Angeles District Attorney's office. They are decent middle class hardworking people who are very close to each other until Alice Steele enters their lives. Bill is besotted with her and within a few months he marries her. Lora tries to like her but she feels that Alice is trying too hard to be the perfect housewife. Seeing inconsistencies in her behavior, Lora investigates Alice's background which leads to her to thinking her in-law is involved in something criminal. A friend Lois from Alice's former life acts trashy as she depends on Alice to bail her out when she gets into trouble. Alice befriends the wife of Bill's friend, who shortly thereafter commits suicide just prior to Lois being murdered. It is only when Bill is prepared to break the law to abet his wife does Lora act to put an end to Alice's influence with the help of a very connected criminal who bears no love for Alice. DIE A LITTLE is a dark urban 1950s Hollywood noir where even honest lawmen break the law if they can get away with it. Lora is a fascinating character who loves her brother too much to let him throw his life away on a criminal and is a bit jealous of the hold Alice has on her sibling. There are no heroes in this book, only people who do what is necessary to get their own way. Megan Abbott is a fine writer who uses the first person narrative as a way of increasing the tension and the gradual feeling of overwhelming foreboding. Harriet Klausner

I found this novel impossible to put down. Think of the dark atmospheric films of David Lynch, but here you get a much more satisfying, coherent story. The two most important women characters play a fascinating game of cat and mouse. I really liked the character of Alice: hot, smart and always ready to act as her circumstances change. The author is particularly good at giving all of her characters psychologically plausible motivations. When you get to end, you will be thinking about it for days.

I was hooked on this book by the end of the first page. There is something really different about it--aside from the powerful characters being women. You feel like you've stepped into Hollywood in the fifties because the author so captures the atmosphere of that era. After I finished, I felt like going out and finding some old movie magazines. Do they still publish them? And yet, the writing is very literary--poetic even. Waiting eagerly for the next book. Hope she sets it in Hollywood in the fifties too.