Fleur de Leigh's Life of Crime

Heartbreak lies between the witty lines of this first novel by a Hollywood insider who gives the reader a comic but deadly accurate look at the decadent nature of 1950s Hollywood. The eponymous narrator is a precocious, neglected poor little rich girl who learns a little too much about life from two selfish people who have no business being parents. Fleur De Leigh is 10 when we meet her, living in the lap of luxury with her neurotic, self-involved mother and aloof father. Fleur's mother, star and creator of The Charmian Leigh Radio Mystery Half-Hour, sprinkles her conversation with high school French phrases and flirts with anything in pants. Her self-absorbed prattle, ruthless social and professional climbing and pretentiousness would be funny if they weren't so cruel. Meanwhile, Fleur's father, Maurice (formerly Morrie), belittles Fleur and sleeps with the nannies. The tale follows Fleur through her 12th year as her parents flippantly betray, seduce or sabotage her nannies and anyone else who has the bad taste to act like a real person. Eight nannies, including Fleur's grandmother, fail to pass muster; each departure leaves Fleur lonelier than before, but wiser in the ways of the adult world. As she sleuths around her Beverly Hills mansion to learn the mysteries of her life's domestic slippage, she records, with wry candor, the bizarre and vulgar milieu in which her parents move. Of all the adults Fleur encounters, only the gardener behaves with dignity and kindness. Leslie's keen eye on L.A. social mores reveals such details as the ritual morning amphetamine pill and the difficulty of finding a swimmable swimming pool, since most are designed as artsy status symbols. Light as whipped cream but flavored with acid, this is a touching story filled with emotionally impoverished rich people abusing servants with their whims, and one sharp, sensitive little girl, whose resourceful quest for love and attention is irresistible. Agent, Laurie Fox at the Linda Chester Agency. (May) FYI: As an employee of Dutton's bookstore in Brentwood, Leslie runs author readings and discussion groups.