Show Business Kills
By Iris Rainer Dart
A hard-driving movie executive. A beloved soap opera
diva. A screenwriter nominated for an Oscar. A well-known actress
married to TV's King of Late Night. Four women who have led charmed
Hollywood lives; four friends facing middle age in the youth capital
of the world.
"We're as disposable as yesterday's newspaper."
"Worse.
Yesterday's newspaper can be recycled."
Show business sucked them in when they were young,
and now it's trying its best to spit them out. But these women aren't
finished fighting tooth and nail - albeit bonded tooth and acrylic
nail - to enjoy the success they spent their youth pursuing. Especially
when one of them ends up in the intensive care unit, a victim of
a stalker with a gun.
The ritual "Girls' Night" they have always
shared for refuge and laughter tonight becomes a painful vigil as
three women watch their friend fight for her life. And as they wait
and worry, they do what they have always done to keep themselves
sane: tell stories about themselves. Tales of love affairs, wonderful
or hilariously awful: of professional triumphs and betrayals. Bittersweet
anecdotes about the sexism and ageism all four have encountered
- the pain it takes to make the world believe in the glamour that
is Hollywood. The stories remind them of why they're fighting and
let them laugh together and celebrate the friendship that has made
it all worthwhile.
But beyond the hospital, the stalker is still undetected,
still obsessed, not just with the victim but with all four women.
They have lived the sunny side of the California dream, and the
attacker has been left out in the dark. Without the old bonds that
have linked them for years, the women will not survive this chilling
night.
From the best-selling author of Beaches, Show Business
Kills is a tart, funny, revealing novel - a story for everyone who
dreams in Technicolor and believes in the power of friendship.
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