Customer Reviews

Last Writes

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jaine Austen is thrilled when her friend Kandi gets her an assignment writing an episode of the syndicated sit-com Muffy `n Me. And, if this goes well, it might even be a permanent job. With visions of Malibu beach homes in her head, Jaine starts work. Her dream dims a little when she encounters the cast fighting and poor working conditions. But it becomes a nightmare when one of the stars is poisoned during the filming of the first scene of her script. With Kandi as the prime suspect, Jaine must find out who the real killer is to keep her friend from going to jail.

I enjoyed the first booking this series, but I think I liked this one more. It's light and fun, definitely for the humor mystery crowd. Jaine's narration is loads of fun, contrasting what she wants with what really happens. The characters are lively and well developed. All the secondary characters from the first book are back, from the memory writing octogenarians to Lance, the neighbor with x-ray hearing. They add some wonderful bits of humor. And the plot was great. It twisted so many ways that I still had no clue who had done it until the end. Plus the sub-plot with her parents is a riot.

This is an enjoyable read. I'm already anxious for the next book in the series.

I didn't like this Jaine Austen episode as much as the others I have read. It seemed like it took forever to finish. It might just be me but I felt it was not up there with the rest of her books. I still gave it 3 stars because it was clever and entertaining.

Jaine gets a job writing for a sitcom. The author definitely knew the ins and outs of a tv studio. Someone kills the handsome actor in the show. The police suspect her best friend Kandi. Jaine works hard to find the real killer.

If you have read the other books in the series, don't miss this one!

Thanks to the efforts of her best friend, Kandi Tobolowski, free lance writer Jaine Austen has finally landed a gig as a sitcom writer -- or at least as a writer for one episode of "Muffy n' Me". Of course it is true that as far as sitcoms go Muffy n' Me isn't exactly top notch -- ditto the studio (Miracle Studios), the acting cast and the head writers, Audrey and Stan Miller -- but Jaine isn't about to allow such considerations to get her down. She finally has her first real professional tinsel town job!! The atmosphere at the set however soon extinguishes the stars from Jaine's eyes: everyone from the actors to the stage crew is out for number one; and the star, Vanessa Dennis (affectionately known as VD) who plays the teenage Muffy, turns out to be truly obnoxious; add to that the fact that half of the head writing team, Audrey, seems to be an Ice Queen, while the other half, hubby Stan, is an ineffectual alcoholic -- and you have some idea of what the atmosphere at the set of "Muffy n' Me" is like.

But it is when one of the cast members, Quinn Kirkland , is discovered in fragante delicto with the teenage Vanessa, that things really begin bubble. Quinn, it turns out is a bit of a slimy Romeo, who has been spreading his favours evenly and indiscriminately around all the women on the set (a list that unfortunately includes Kandi and Audrey). Now the women are all breathing fire and swearing revenge, and when Quinn dies during the shooting of a scene (apparently from nibbling on piece of poisoned doughnut), the police zero in on Kandi as prime suspect! Now it is up to Jaine to figure out who really killed Quinn and to get her friend off the hook...

This is the second Jaine Austen mystery novel, and while I really do love these novels, honesty compels me to warn that although "Last Rites" proved to be an amusing and enjoyable read, if you're looking for a mystery novel that will really engage the detective in you, you might want to give "Last Rites" a miss. On the other hand, if you're looking for something light, entertaining and funny as can be, I'd recommend this book in a heartbeat! The thing is, "Last Rites" unfolds a little slowly. Jaine has a small group of suspects to work with (all who don't really trust her all that much because she's a bit of an outsider); add to that the fact that much of the 'action' really is confined to the sets and offices at Miracle Studios, and you will understand why the book is not really a page turner. Fortunately one can always fall back on Laura Levine's bright and breezy narrative prose style. And something else worthy of mention, the authour's precise and cleverly drawn character and scene descriptions. All in all, "Last Rites" proved to be a truly humourous and charming read. I enjoyed all of Jaine's witty asides, her deprecating humour and her wacky interactions with her parents and her cat, Prozac (who bears an uncanny resemblance to my own cats). So that if you're looking for a nice summer read to while away the time while sunning yourself on a deck (or whatever scenario grabs your fancy), I'd recommend "Last Rites" as a book worthy of consideration.

I personally would describe this book more as amusing than laugh out loud funny -- somehow the author seemed to be trying too hard for laughs much of the time rather than a more subtle wit. The central "detective" character is Jaine Austen (the Austen jokes got tiresome quickly -- don't understand the choice of names unless she was trying to have a memorable name for the series), who is a Hollywood writer who wants to write for television but mostly doesn't. She gets asked to write a script for a B sit-com with the possibility of getting invited to be on staff. She is given a desk in a ratty office (so much for the glamour of television) and introduced to the cast of characters involved in the production of "Muffy N Me," whose star is a teenage girl with big [...] and little acting ability. Someone ends up murdered, and the friend who helped get Jaine this job is a suspect. That's a good enough excuse for Jaine to decide to try to find the killer herself, so she tells the production team that she's decided to try to solve the murder and therefore has some questions to ask (you have to suspend a lot of disbelief in this book -- if one of these people is the killer, this is probably not a good idea, and the police usually get annoyed with people who do this).

The author writes sitcoms and it shows -- there's a certain sitcom quality to the whole book (going for a laugh a minute rather than the surprising witty line here or there). Still, the book engaged my attention well and I truly was surprised by the ending, although it made sense to me (as much as anything in a rather silly, suspend-all-disbelief book makes sense).

Jaine Austen, owner of the writing service, This Pen For Hire has gotten a real job.

Kandi, her best friend got her a job to write a script for the series "Muffy `n Me." This is Kandi's new job after many years with the Saturday morning cartoon, Beanie & The Cockroach.

It starts out good, they seem to like her script and the gorgeous Quinn Kirkland, who plays the uncle of the lead character, actually flirts with her.

But there's trouble on the set, Stan Miller, one of the head writers seems to spend most of his time drinking and his wife Audrey spends most of her time yelling. Zach Levy-Taylor who plays the boyfriend of Muffy seems to want it to continue in real life. Muffy herself, Vanessa Dale won't give him or anyone else the time of day.

Things really turn bad when Quinn Kirkland turns up dead and the list of suspects run longer than the credits. He was having affairs with Vanessa, Audrey, Kandi and possibly every other woman on the lot. Was it a jealous, husband, boyfriend?

The cops think it's a jealous spurned lover, named Kandi.

Janine has to start her detective work again to try and save her best friend from a long term jail sentence. And it get's even more dangerous when she realizes that the killer is afraid of her investigation and may be trying to kill her.

Highlights:

This book is as funny as the first one. May be the best series as far as humor in the mystery genre.

Great mystery. Jaine has to do some real detective work to figure it out and I never guessed the killer or the motive.

Jaine's parents, whose e-mail appear throughout the book, they're retired to Florida and are hooked on the home shopping network and Jaine's father seems to think her mother is having an affair with one of the men on the network. Jaine's mother thinks her husband has gone insane.

Lowlights.

None, just a great series.

This was a great book, as was the first in the series, This Pen for Hire. I laughed out loud numerous times. Jaine Austen is witty and extremely likable. The plot moved along smoothly, the characters were well-developed and the end wasn't predictable. Can't wait for another!!

Writer Jaine Austen (no relation) is working for a sit-com, her freelance script picked up and now being shot. It's a great job and a big step up from writing copy for a toilet company. Better yet, one of the handsome actors is paying Jaine some serious attention. The only problem is, he's paying all of the women serious attention--and several of them are paying it back. When the actor ends up murdered, Jaines's best friend (and one of the actor's conquests) is the prime suspect. Jaine knows her friend didn't do it, but how can she prove it, and how can she keep herself alive?

Author Laura Levine writes with a sassy contemporary style. Jaine worries about her thighs, even as she helps herself to the second brownie, obsesses over her cat, and tries to sort out her parents' delusional lives, all while trying to solve a mystery. Levine's insights into Los Angeles screenwriting ring true, and Jaine has a best girlfriend sort of appeal.

I found the device of having Jaine give a smart comeback, then admitting that she didn't really say that to be amusing, but it became tired as Levine used it again and again. Likewise, I could have done with a little less of Prozac, the cat or neighbor Lance, neither of whom seemed really tied into the story. The aging memoir crew at the Shalome Retirement Home come on strong, however.

Laura Levine does it again.
Her wisecracking, L.A.-hip heroine, Jaine Austen, is back on the crime-fighting scene -- quite by happenstance as in the series debut -- and her adventures provide page-after-page of laughs and surprises.
This time, Jaine must find out who really murdered Quinn Kirkland, the oversexed heartthrob on the low-rent sit-com "Muffy 'n Me." Jaine, a freelance writer normally stuck writing ad copy for the likes of Toiletmasters Plumbers, has gotten a writing gig on the show thanks to her good friend Kandi Tobolowski, only to discover that this kind of showbiz is not what she bargained for.
Her travails in tracking down Kirkland's real killer -- and saving Kandi in the process -- are loaded with the kinds of hilarious one-liners that made her first book, "This Pen for Hire," such a success.
"Last Rites" starts off briskly and maintains a steady pace of laughs and clues throughout. Readers will be hard-pressed to put this one down.
Levine knows how to deliver a great summertime read -- heck, it's great for all seasons.

Laura Levine spent time as a sitcom writer and she's transferred that format over to her mystery series about Jaine Austen, freelance writer. If you imagine a Mystery Movie of the Week with Julia Louis Dreyfus playing a Jessica Fletcher type with a good dose of Columbo added for the "schlub in Beverly Hills" factor, you'd have Jaine Austen. The writing focuses on laughs, not character and relationships don't develop beyond the superficial. That said, Jaine is likeable, the stories are fun and the mystery plots move along. Some of the author's formula can get a bit wearing, she frequently has Jaine as narrator say blunt, smart aleck remarks to people and then in the next line say "no, I didn't really say that, I just wished I did". It was funny the first time, but not by the end of the book. I enjoy Jaine's weakness for fast food and bubble baths but not so much her descriptions of her cellulite.

This second book in Laura Levine's "Jaine Austen" mysteries is a delight from cover to cover. It's a page turner, and delivers what it advertises: humor and sparkling wit. In this book, Jaine writes a sitcom script and works on the studio lot with best pal, Kandi, while it's being produced. Of course someone is killed. Kandi is blamed, and Jaine tries to clear Kandi so goes a-sleuthing. Just as entertaining as the first book, Ms. Levine gives us laugh-out-loud fun. She is GOOD.