City of Mirrors

You can almost smell the oleander—or maybe it’s just the sweet reek of sex, power, and corruption—wafting from Howe’s seductive Tinseltown neo-noir, first of a series featuring 40-something actress and movie-star spawn Diana Poole (who debuted in 2012’s Shooting Hollywood: The Diana Poole Stories). With the film whose paycheck the recent widow sorely needs jeopardized by the murder of its young lead, Jenny Parson, Diana tries to track down the killer—only to land in a nightmare she’ll be lucky to survive. Working her considerable contacts, Diana starts to uncover some ugly truths about friends and family (including her late, legendary mother) and to suspect that her initial adversary, Leo Heath, a magnetic Colt-carrying “fixer,” just might be the only ally she has. Although some of the two-fisted action would be convincing only on screen, actress-turned-author Howe offers an unvarnished insider’s view of Hollywood as well as a gutsy leading lady well worth an encore. Agent: Helen Zimmerman, Helen Zimmerman Literary Agency. (Sept.)