TRICKS OF THE TRADE

First-time novelist Tyler stirs up an intoxicating cocktail composed of equal parts delicious name-dropping gossip, venomous Hollywood satire and steamy boy-meets-boy action. As staff copywriter at Sterling Studios, Bart Cain is in a prime position to observe the destruction that his homophobic boss, "Scary Shari" Draper, has set in motion in her winner-take-all battle to unseat gay head honcho Owen Lucas. Blackmailed into helping her, Bart enlists the aid of friends to foil her plan. While the intrigue at work makes Bart's life miserable, he finds temporary happiness in the bed of hunky gigolo/screenwriter Rodrigo Dominguez. In an effort to help Rod's writing career, Bart escorts him to a party filled with movers and shakers at the home of TV star Jim Fallon. Unfortunately for Bart, Fallon sets his sights on the lusty Latino and steals him away with promises of producing his script. Fallon is looking for a vehicle to resurrect the career he destroyed when a homemade s&m porn video revealed a different side of TV's favorite squeaky-clean sitcom dad. Written in cinematic, pop culture–inflected prose, this fast-paced name-dropper pulls the reader effortlessly, along like a spicy NC-17 cable miniseries. The surprise is Tyler's multidimensional characters, who, like counterparts in Queer as Folk and Sex in the City, live in the fast lane but are filled with enough doubts, concerns and foibles to endear them to readers. (July 2)

Forecast:The stop-you-in-your-tracks cover art and national ad campaign will certainly grab attention, and the July release gives the book a springboard to becoming this summer's big gay beach novel, following in the footsteps of California Screaming and Sex Toys of the Gods.