Flop Dead Gorgeous

As Andy Carpenter will be only too happy to tell you, he once dated famous Hollywood star Jenny Nichols in high school.  In David Rosenfelt's Flop Dead Gorgeous (#1,154) Andy Carpenter is happy now to be just friends with this celebrity.  Since she adopted her little French poodle Mamie from the Tara Foundation a few years ago, Mamie is almost as famous as Jenny herself, appearing with her everywhere, which puts Jenny high on Andy's list of favorite people.  He and Laurie have hosted Jenny several times while she's filming a romcom in New York City.  But when her obnoxious co-star Ryan Griffin crashes a private party at Joe's Sports Bar with his bodyguards in tow (sacred ground for Andy and his friends) he senses that not everything is copacetic about the production.  That impression is reinforced when Jenny calls Andy in the early morning hours to tell him that she found Ryan dead in her mother's secluded New Jersey home with a knife in his back.

Andy knows Jenny couldn't possibly have committed such a violent murder, but the scene has been staged so carefully it will be difficult to convince a jury of her innocence.  Just when Andy thought maybe his retirement from law was actually working...

As Andy and his team dig deeper, there are plenty of reasons why someone would want Ryan dead.  The question is who?  Can they find the motivation and the actual murderer before the jury convicts Jenny?  The clock is ticking.

I think my favorite line in this mystery is when Andy is forced to fly to Los Angeles to track down evidence.  He thinks the 405 should be named the Marquis de Sade Freeway.  Having driven it recently, I agree!