The motto of screen goddess Tommi Ann Butler becomes the mantra for entertainment reporter Cat Austen, when Cat is attached to Tommi Ann's latest project: the Oscar nominee is Cat's Alter-ego, amateur sleuth Kate Auletta, in Death of a Shock Jock, a TV movie based on the Jerry Dudek murder. Cat's status as "the real Kate Auletta" gives her an advantage over all but one of her rabid colleagues, fellow reporter Ron Spivak. Dying for an inside scoop, he has managed to snag a bit part as the victim, which will have him playing out the DJ's murder scene with the celebrated actress. During the recreation of the fatal quarrel between Cat and Dudek, the prop gun misfires and art imitates death.
Mishap or murder?
Homicide Lieutenant Victor Cardenas arrives to find key players gone, the big picture fragmented by conflicting points of view, and a roster of most unusual suspects: Tommi Ann's powerful agent/Husband, Ben Butler; her "gatekeeper," Diane King; her prot‚g‚é and double, Cici Bonaker; struggling writer/actor Harold Anderson; weapons manager, Wally Reid; director/actor/activist Red Melendez; frenzied producer April Steinmetz; easy-going rapper Big Phat P.I.G.; and the retinue of fawners, followers and flunkeys orbiting the star.
Rubino once again offers a brillant blend of the domestic with the deadly in this fourth Cat Austen mystery, which offers a gutsy and hilarious satire on reality vs. illusion and celebrity obsession -- and her own debut novel, Death of a DJ!
