A Starlet’s Secret to a Sensational Afterlife

A starlet and a stuntman team up to solve a string of Hollywood disappearances in this fiercely feminist speculative caper by Kulper (Murder for the Modern Girl). It’s 1934, and newly clairvoyant 18-year-old aspiring actor Henrietta Newhouse has just left Chicago for a serendipitous job opportunity in Los Angeles. Elsewhere in L.A., Declan Collins’s manager suggests that the 19-year-old abandon stunt work for on-screen acting, lest someone notice his preternatural invincibility. Henny and Declan meet and butt heads during a joint screen test, but their electric chemistry lands Henny a major role with prestigious Silver Wing Studios and Declan a gig as Henny’s pretend boyfriend, to help elevate her image. The duo bicker constantly until each learns that the other is secretly investigating why Silver Wing actresses keep vanishing: Declan because he’s been hired by a missing girl’s family, and Henny because she encountered the ghost of her friend Miriam after the rising star purportedly quit the business and moved back home. Kulper delivers an action-packed mystery replete with witty dialogue and buoyed by an ardent, slow-burn romance that enthralls while spotlighting Hollywood’s long history of abusing, commodifying, and discarding women. Most characters cue as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Sara Crowe, Pippin Properties. (May)