GETTING GARBO

Growing up in a "quasi-slum" in 1940s and '50s Brooklyn, Reva Hess thought of the radio as her best friend, so it's no surprise she turned out to be obsessed by stars of the studio and screen. Now living in Santa Monica, Calif., with her difficult, alcoholic mother, 19-year-old Reva hangs around the fringes of premieres scavenging autographs and trying to figure out what to do with her life. Roy Darnell, an old hero of hers from her Brooklyn radio days, is now a Hollywood B-lister who moves among the A-listers (Bogart, Bacall, Burt Lancaster), and his narration alternates with Reva's—and also with that of his alter ego, Jack Havoc, the hardboiled detective Roy portrays on TV and, increasingly, in real life. When, after a bad divorce, Roy accidentally kills his ex-wife, Adrienne, "Beverly Hills interior decorator to the stars," and realizes Reva can place him at the crime scene, he knows that he'll need to make sure the girl doesn't talk. But Reva is going through her own emotional battle—and she wouldn't betray an old friend, would she? An energetic, if uneven, portrait of the stars and the starstruck, this novel offers a dash of old-time Hollywood glitz and an ending that's cinematic and bittersweet. Agent, Bob Diforio. (Sept.)