cover image Foreign Object

Foreign Object

Ron Base. Doubleday Canada, $0 (298pp) ISBN 978-0-385-25103-7

As in a frothy movie, the operative word here is ""fun.'' Film journalist Tom Coward (introduced in Matinee Idol is at the Cannes Film Festival, mainly to interview Lacy Bergen, a Brooke Shieldstype movie star. Coward meets a beautiful woman of mystery, but just as they go into a passionate clinch, he's attacked and knocked out. The next night, Coward sees her again and finds she's the wife of the producer of Saudi, a schlock epic, but she insists they haven't met before. Coward finds himself involved with the producer, who has stolen millions from an Egyptian gangster. Also on hand are the gangster's sadistic hired killer, a B-movie action star, a faded legend of a director, Israeli agents and the ingenue's fierce movie-mother. A 10-year-old murder comes to light, and a couple of new, imaginative killings occur. There's lots of Cannes and movie color, but perhaps too much childish-hip dialogue. Toronto Daily Star film critic Base keeps us turning pages in this high-glitz caper. Paperback rights to Bantam. (January 9)