Fifty Cents For Your Soul

Frannie Rosen was brought up in an affluent neighborhood on Long Island but she now lives in a fifth floor walk up in Manhattan with her lover Andre. Frannie wants to be an actress more than anything in the world and she believes she is on the road to success when she is cast as a demon in a horror film directed by Victor Madison. Since the movie is being produced in Houston, Frannie and Andre fly to Texas, but their relationship rapidly deteriorates from the time filming starts. Frannie believes she is demon possessed and starts hitting the bottle. She discovers two dead bodies and thinks that the person who killed them both also killed the screenwriter of the film. Little does she realize that the murderer is somebody she considers a very close friend, a person she trusts completely with her soul. Denise Dietz is a very talented writer who has crafted a combination mystery horror novel that will appeal to fans of both genres. FIFTY CENTS FOR YOUR SOUL stars a delightfully quirky heroine who doesn't let the fact that she is "possessed" interfere with her main goal of being a famous actress. Readers will adore her because she is so charming and piquant as she stars in a strong story line.Harriet Klausner

This new novel by Denise Dietz is somewhat different from her other mysteries, but it still has her "voice" and I enjoyed it very much. A definite page turner, I couldn't stop at the end of a chapter, but had to keep going until I'd finished the book. Then I started all over again, picking out the clues I'd missed. Fifty Cents For Your Soul is a keeper.

For woo-woo fans, Denise Dietz' new supernatural thriller, FIFTY CENTS FOR YOUR SOUL, should be required reading. Appropriate to a book about the weirder side of film-making, the title is taken from a Marilyn Monroe quote: "Hollywood is a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul."The story revolves-- well, actually, spins-- around Frannie Rosen, an aspiring actress, who lands a part in a new horror film directed by Victor Madison. It wouldn't be that big a deal, except that Madison is the revered, hated, celebrated, infamous master of horror films whose sinister history catapults Frannie from being a small cog in a big film to being a major player in a story of deceit, doppelgangers, possession, revenge, sex, witchcraft, murder, pathos, and, oh, yes, sex. Along the way, Dietz once again proves herself the master of rippling dialogue and fast-moving action.To add background authenticity to the book, it happens that Denise Dietz' sister, Eileen Dietz, doubled for Linda Blair in THE EXORCIST. You thought it was sweet, young, innocent Linda Blair who did all those awful possession scenes? Uh-uh, it was our author's sister.I had the pleasure of seeing FIFTY CENTS FOR YOUR SOUL in manuscript as it was being written, and even more pleasure-- and surprise-- when I recently received an ARC and found I was mentioned in the dedication.Denise Dietz, is also the author of FOOTPRINTS IN THE BUTTER, THROW DARTS AT A CHEESECAKE and BEAT UP A COOKIE.