Star Quality

With nary a pause in her pell-mell narrative, this pseudonymous first-time author drives her teeming cast through murderous power struggles and glamour traps in Hollywood. Aging, bitter actress Diana Halloway concentrates on ruining her daughter Kelly's life after Kelly moves back to Hollywood and marries her mother's former lover. Mafioso Paul Fontana targets Hollywood as his next empire while his spoiled daughter, a soap opera star aspiring to a film career, wields her father's name to manipulate everyone in her path, from her hapless husband to an up-and-coming director. Fontana's son attempts to hide his sexuality from his family, thereby condemning himself to a state of constant unhappiness and fear. And top star Drew Stern, searching for the stability denied him in his youth, falls in love with Laura Danby, on the run from one of Fontana's soldiers. Everyone has secrets and everyone makes enemies in this two-dimensional, marginally diverting Tinseltown tale. (Feb.)