Maggie Nash is the daughter of Charles Nash, a very wealthy man in his late eighties who is residing in Europe and has recently taken a new mistress named Nicole Richaud. Maggie is an internationally acclaimed film director who arrogantly underestimates Nicole’s commitment to money and power.

Maggie is in the States concluding the financial backing of her new film and shopping for an undiscovered male talent. While shopping for a Gucci tie (labels are important to all these characters) she meets salesman Max Jaxon and, noting his tremendous sex appeal, invites him to lunch. The sexual tension sizzles, but Maggie’s schedule has her flying off to Aspen to conduct a seminar. Max follows her and after a night of what can best be described as clinical sex, he becomes her new leading man, both in and out of bed.

During the filming they visit her father and Nicole decides the ultimate insult to Maggie would be bedding Max, so she, unbeknownst to Maggie, successfully goes after him. The film is a success and Max signs for another one, only this time Maggie has snared the hot new leading female actress as the co-star. Enter talented Kristen Caulfield as the new love interest of Max and Maggie. And did I mention the set prop man Bruce Borger falls passionately in love with Kristen?

These are the basic triangles and they become the key for Detective Christopher Daniel as he investigates an attempted murder. The crime is committed on the set during the filming of Maggie's latest. Max, an avid hang glider, is performing his own stunt when the script calls for Kristen to shoot him as he is in the air. The bullets are not blanks, but are unexpectedly real and he crashes. In real time he is comatose for most of the length of the book. Who, why and how this was done are revealed in the back flashes of these characters' lives as Chris finds everyone guilty of something.

The characters are well developed, but move very predictably through the scenes with fairly banal dialogue. There is little sexual tension even with all these triangles, as those scenes are mere clinical observations.

It doesn't work as a thriller, because the focus is never really on the crime but on the lusts and lives of the actors and the fluff that accompanies. It doesn't work as romantic suspense, because it’s hard to find the romance in the sex.

However, if you are a true Hollywood aficionado and enjoy reading about the glittery lives of the newly rich and famous it might work for you.

--Thea Davis