Maggie Marr
Crown Publishers, 2008
260 pages
hardcover
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The fun in reading Maggie Marr's Hollywood Girls Club and now its sequel Secrets of the Hollywood Girls Club is that Marr brings the Hollywood system and lifestyle into vivid reality in a most entertaining way. And no wonder--Marr is herself a writer and producer in L.A. She uses her knowledge, then, to infuse her novels, and the result is an easy, breezy read with characters that are fun to read about.
The books have at their core four Hollywood friends: the big superstar actress, the agent-turned-producer, the producer-turned-studio exec, and the mousy scriptwriter. Also involved are various directors, insane starlets, shady publicists and the like. Having worked a bit in the biz myself, I have to admit I might be biased in my enjoyment of these books, as I find in them a way to live vicariously in the life I chose to leave behind.
The only drawback might be that anyone who reads mysteries on even a semi-regular basis will have things figured out pretty early on. But watching the characters get out of tight spots is the real fun here, and Marr certainly understands the principle of making things very dark indeed before the sunrise. One can really feel the tension building as the problems become more complicated . . . And there was one obvious piece of information left undeclared, which makes me wonder if Marr is planning to use that in yet another book. Hmm?
The ending feels a bit rushed and sudden, but that only marginally detracts from the whole. The bottom line is that it was a book I had a difficult time putting down because it moved so quickly, like a roller coaster, or really a bit like a good movie.
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