cover image The Vipers' Club

The Vipers' Club

John H. Richardson, Lindsey Allen. William Morrow & Company, $24 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-688-12672-8

Written by a show-biz journalist, this vicariously seductive debut novel was first serialized in Premiere magazine as The Bluescreen. The dedication to Die Hard producer Joel Silver and a sly disclaimer that the novel is not a roman a clef are disingenuous, clearly calculated to set readers buzzing over Who's Who in Richardson's Hollywood. Peter James, a young East coast academic, sells his soul for a shot at becoming a big-time moviemaker and finds he's a pawn in a bitter feud between Barry Rose, a powerful producer, and Max Fischer, his onetime assistant, now his chief rival and the new king of Hollywood ""action trash.'' Seduced by money and ambition, Peter works for Max and sleeps with Tracy Rose, Barry's drug-addicted 19-year-old daughter. Suspense escalates when Tracy lies to her father about the black eye she incurred during sex with Peter. Barry accuses Max of rape, and in short order Max is also charged with the murder of Tracy's former classmate, a teenage prostitute. Torn between loyalty to his arrogant mentor and his love of Tracy, Peter must take a hard look into his conscience. The fast-forward action plays against a flickering montage of studio back lots, posh brothels and lavish canyon estates-exposing the shallowness and pandering behind the movie magic. Told with spicy panache, this impishly prurient novel is so readable that few will care that the ending is somewhat anticlimactic. U.K. rights to Hodder & Stoughton. (July)