In a remote Los Angeles canyon, someone shoots and kills documentary filmmaker Brandon McKenna, an old college friend of wealthy cartoonist Lucy Freers. Though she is pregnant, Lucy decides to investigate the murder of Brandon, who she recently hired as a nanny to her four-year old daughter.
Lucy quickly realizes that Brandon packed very lightly as if he was on the lam. She soon looks at some of Brandon's tapes, including the murder of a casting director by a child. The police ruled that death was an accident due to a fall down a set of stairs. Lucy panics when her daughter informs her the child-killer attends her exclusive school. Since no one wants to accept a cherubic child as a murderer, Lucy knows it is up to her to prove otherwise before the killer strikes again at her or her loved ones.
PLAYING DEAD is an interesting Hollywood who-done-it. The story line is fast paced and filled with action. The characters, including the alleged kid-killer, seem genuine. Additionally, the return of Terry Shoe (see THE DEAD CELEB) adds a nice touch to a nicely fashioned amateur sleuth mystery that will gain Lindsay Maracotta new fans.
Harriet Klausner
But Lucy, a sensible midwesterner transplanted to this land of Lotus, keeps her sights down-to-earth. She's an outstanding mom, a sexy wife (even with a second child on the way), and an animator whose star is rocketing high. But then, in a flash, her perfect world of storyboard mornings and car pool afternoons goes from romantic comedy to film noir.
Lucy's nanny, Brandon, a former filmmaker--and her onetime lover (but that's another story)--is shot dead while driving her husband's car. It's unclear who the intended victim was, but then Lucy stumbles upon something even more chilling: a videotape hidden among Brandon's things that shows a child in the act of murder.
Though the authorities scoff, Lucy suspects the killer is cruising through classrooms and lunchrooms with Hollywood's privileged children, as dewy-eyed innocent as any other baseball-capped kid. With a razor wit and a hilarious irreverence for the trappings of fame as her only weapons, Lucy launches a one-woman investigation. She brings us smack into the looking-glass world of child actors, where nine-year-olds can fire their own parents, and where little-girl "wannabes" bat false eyelashes at young, swaggering superstars. It is a brilliantly observed world where a child's smile commands top dollar and a killer is about to have the last laugh.