A Star is Dead

February 3, 2020
In Agatha finalist Viets’s skillfully plotted fourth mystery featuring death investigator Angela Richman (after 2018’s Ice Blonde), the burghers of Chouteau Forest, a posh community 30 miles from St. Louis, are agog at the prospect of meeting Jessica Gray, “a sixties beauty who’d starred in two classic films from that era, Flower Power and Eternally Groovy.” Jessica, the peddler of her own kale-based beauty products, has agreed to attend a party at the mansion of a prominent Chouteau Forest resident after the final performance of her one-woman show. There Jessica slips seamlessly from charm to condescension, managing to offend an ever-widening circle of people. It’s little wonder that she ends up dead. When Angela’s friend Mario Garcia, who was Jessica’s hairdresser during her stay in the area, is arrested for her murder, Angela steps up to help prove Mario’s innocence. Witty dialogue and well-defined characters, including plucky and intelligent Angela, lift this wry look at the trappings of celebrity. Fans and newcomers alike will be pleased. Agent: Joshua Bilmes, JABberwocky Literary.

February 1, 2020
A plethora of suspects emerges when a fading star flames out. Jessica Gray is a diva to the core. More than 50 years ago, she ruled Hollywood, dancing naked in Eternally Groovy and partying till the wee hours at Whiskey a GoGo. Now in her 70s, she still captivates audiences, her age carefully concealed by makeup artist Will London. When her one-woman tour takes her to Chouteau County, Missouri, local hairdresser Mario Garcia is thrilled at the chance to work similar magic on her blonde locks. He even talks his good friend Angela Richman (Ice Blonde, 2018, etc.) into coming to the show and traveling with the star's entourage. Although she marvels at Jessica's stunning face and figure, Angela is horrified by her act, which includes merciless mockery of three homeless women. And riding with Jessica's roadies puts Angela right in the limo when the star goes into respiratory distress and dies. Now Angela's in a bind. As death investigator for Chouteau County, it's her job to take charge of the body and perform the tests required by the medical examiner. But she's also a witness to a death that's looking more suspicious by the minute. Worst of all, the police zero in on her pal Mario as the prime suspect. Angela's outraged. Mario, who thinks the world of Jessica, has no motive at all. Jessica's makeup artist, Will; her understudy, Tawnee Simms; and her assistant, Stu Milano, all hate her. And the three women she's humiliated aren't her biggest fans either. Despite a whopping big clue, Angela takes her sweet time solving the case, rescuing her friend Mario by a hair. Needless complications are likely to try the reader's patience.

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April 15, 2020
Jessica Gray is an over-the-hill Hollywood star on a one-person revival tour in the Midwest. After a show in St. Louis, she visits the upscale community of Chouteau Forest, where she humiliates several homeless people on stage. She also fires her staff and treats everyone badly. When she suddenly collapses at a party, she is rushed to the hospital and diagnosed with pneumonia, but she checks herself out against medical advice. She wants to return to civilization in California, but she has a severe coughing fit on the way to the airport and dies before she can return to the hospital. After it's determined that Gray was poisoned, Angela Richman decides to investigate, driven by the arrest of her friend Mario, a Cuban hair stylist, for the crime. She's certain he's innocent, but the incompetent, gung-ho detective on the case wants a quick solution. With Gray having had so many enemies, there is no shortage of suspects. This third in Viets' Death Investigator series will satisfy both procedural and cozy fans who like a good puzzle.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

April 1, 2020

Angela Richman wishes she hadn't been in the audience when Jessica Gray made her final appearance in St. Louis, MO. Jessica, a movie star in the 1960s, is now an elderly diva with a stand-up show in which she made fun of three homeless women. Angela, a death investigator in the nearby town of Chouteau Forest, was supporting her friend, Mario Garcia, a local hair stylist hired to work on the show. Angela witnesses Jessica's cruel treatment of her staff before the star collapses and is rushed to the hospital. Despite her pneumonia, Jessica insists on checking out, but her trip to the airport is her final ride. Angela watches in horror via Mario's phone video as the diva collapses and dies of poisoning. After Mario is arrested for murder, Angela pulls strings to keep in the loop so she can search for the killer before Jessica's team leaves town. The complex case includes homelessness, bigotry, and capital punishment. VERDICT The fourth in the series (after Ice Blonde) is an intriguing mystery featuring a character in the little-known job of death investigator. Fans of forensic mysteries will overlook the sleuth's questionable actions in this dramatic story. [See Prepub Alert, 9/23/19.]--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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