Review: Hollywood Homicide

Y'all my TBR is like the scene out of disaster movie, except instead of bodies, it's print books scattered across the landscape or digital files buried on my Kindle. In both instances I'll turn to spelunking to unearth stories long neglected, which is how I finally came to read Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett. She has since gone on to write more hard-boiled suspense (see my recommendation for Like a Sister), but this was her debut back in 2017 and it's a cozy mystery.

This book is a cozy mystery the way I like 'em. There are no small town cupcake shops that employ magical baking cats who knit in their spare time. It was marketed as a cozy because it's light on gore, violence and "bad language," but it doesn't devolve into any of the cutesy crap that the subgenre has morphed into. It's cozy in the way that Sue Grafton would sometimes be cozy, and y'all I was here for it.

Dayna Anderson is a nice Southern girl and retired actress. She's also flat broke. After a successful run as a spokesperson for a fast food chicken franchise, she's made the decision to quit Hollywood and find another line of work. The problem being that she hasn't yet, has been relying on temp jobs, and well....she's broke. Then her father calls. The bank is about to foreclose on her parents' house. Dayna is desperate. She'll do anything to help her parents. And that's when she sees the billboard. Haley Joseph, pretty, young and blonde, was killed in a hit a run and the cops have opened up a tip line, offering a reward. If a tip comes in leading to an arrest? That person will be $15,000 richer. Dayna, seeing no other options, decides to to play amateur private detective. 

This story has a lot going for it. Our lead protagonist is a Black woman who has had a boob job, and not villainized for it. She investigates Haley's death with the help of her two best friends, Sienna, an ambitious would-be actress and Emme, a tech nerd who happens to be the twin sister of a famous actress. The LA setting is well drawn, and Garrett's occasional skewering of the entertainment industry hits all the right notes. I was enjoying this quite a bit, until I wasn't.

About halfway through it just starts to descend into too much silliness. Dayna has a tendency to exclaim privately (in her own head) things like "Fudge" and "Blergh" when things don't go her way. Then there's Aubrey S. Adams-Parker. This guy y'all. We never get his full story (presumably fodder for the next book in the series?), but he's apparently a former cop who is now a private investigator. Oh and he doesn't drive - he rides a bike. Yes, in LA. It's hard to not have a car in this town and this guy is a private investigator? Sure Jan. Also, since he rides a bike that means he wears a reflector suit and he keeps showing up in the middle of Dayna's snooping. And it's always "Aubrey S. Adams-Parker," never just Aubrey or weirdo guy wearing a reflector suit. I think he's supposed to be funny, but frankly he's tedious.  

Dayna keeps calling the tip line and talking to a gum smacking operator who doesn't take her seriously because by the end of this thing Dayna has accused four different people of running Haley down. The truth comes out in the end, but by that point the ending dragged on a little too long and things got a little too convoluted, and what started out as a fun, breath of fresh air read for me, turned into a book that took me three weeks to finish.

Look, there are definite high points here. Like a said, a Black woman protagonist with a group of friends who solve a mystery together - this is not something growing on trees. Also Garrett does an excellent job with the setting and the cozy vibes. It's just that the humor didn't always land for me, and humor is subjective as hell. Among my mutuals there are folks who really loved this book and folks who, like me, were more "this is OK but didn't always work for me." On the bright side, nobody seemed to outright hate it - so definitely one where mileage is gonna vary.  If this sounds like your thing? I definitely think it's worth a look.

Final Grade = C+

Library Loot Reviews: Two "It" Suspense Novels

While my eyeball reading has been floundering like a beached fish in 2022, my audiobook listening has largely been on point thanks to bingeing mystery/suspense.  I recently leveraged my library card to listen to two "it" books that everyone seems to be talking about right now.  One was successful and one was...well, read on MacDuff.

There was already a ground-swell of buzz that Like a Sister would be Kellye Garrett's "breakout book" but it was Veena's review that pushed me over the edge to pick it up, and I'm glad I did.  

Lena Scott hasn't spoken with her half-sister, former reality TV star, Desiree Pierce in two years. The narcissism, the drugs, the complete disregard for the people who truly love her - Lena had enough. She walked away. Well, sort of. She's still stalking her sister's social media accounts.  That's how she knows Desiree is back in New York.  The New York Daily News is the one to tell Lena that Desiree is dead, of a suspected drug overdose. But right from the jump the whole thing smells wrong to Lena. Desiree did booze and coke, not heroin - and sure as hell Desiree wouldn't have stuck no needle in her arm.  Unless more has changed in two years than even Lena knows about.

What follows is Lena chasing down leads into her sister's death and trying to reconcile with her messy family situation.  Dad is a notorious hip-hop mogul who left Lena's mom to marry her BFF, and Lena was essentially caught in the groundswell of antagonism between the two. Meanwhile Desiree was the pampered princess turned party girl always chasing influence and fame.  That can make a girl a lot of enemies, but enough to kill her?

I am a sucker for suspense novels that explore the seedy side of celebrity culture and this one has it in spades, taking on reality TV and social media influencer culture in all it's grossness.  But I also loved Lena, back in a New York to work on her master's degree at Columbia and slowly unpacking her messy familial relationships.  I was a little lukewarm on the final whodunit, but upon reflection it "fits" and Garrett threw in plenty of twists and turns to keep me guessing and entertained.  A solid, enjoyable listen on audiobook.

Final Grade = B+

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Sigh. A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham has already been sold to actress Emma Stone's production company because apparently nothing was learned when they decided to make a film adaptation of The Girl on the Train. That's right kids! We have another book with a female protagonist who is gorked out on booze and pills with trouble distinguishing between reality and her own paranoia!  Oh. Joy.

When Chloe Davis was 12-years-old her Daddy was convicted of murdering six teenage girls.  Twenty years later, living in Baton Rogue and on the cusp of getting married, Chloe is a respected psychologist who has just set up her own practice. Of course she's popping Xanax like Tic-Tacs and throwing back plenty of red wine, but minor details.  Then the first teenage girl goes missing, and then another.  Chloe sees parallels with her father's crimes and soon becomes even more paranoid when she discovers the missing girls are all connected to her in some way or another.

Apparently we aren't past the paranoid heroine gorked out on substances running off half-cocked trope.  As is always the case with this trope, you spend the majority of the book trapped inside the heroine's gorked out brain, which is about as fun for me to read as nails on a chalk board. Probably too much Marcia Muller and Sue Grafton reading as a teenager - I want all the Competent Heroine Porn I can get in mystery/suspense and Gorked Out On Substances ain't it.

Anyway, the other problem with this trope is you know where it's going before it gets there.  Of course it's going to be someone "close" to the heroine and Willingham only provides so many options (OK, two. Two options).  If you've been down this road before you know right off what the whodunit is going to reveal, and sure enough I did.  However, it's not all Wendy being a Crabby McCrabby Pants. Willingham does throw in a couple little twists to at least make the obvious denouement interesting.

The only reason I got through this was because I listened to it on audio and frankly I need something to listen to on my walk breaks during the work week.  The first 60% was pretty much an eye-crossing slog for me (have I mentioned how much I hate this trope?)  but once I got past the point of no return I inhaled the final 40%.  But this is where I get off the train. Willingham's next book is about a heroine who is gorked out of her skull because she suffers from insomnia.  Blergh.

Final Grade = C-