Customer Reviews

Trashed

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

 

 

In Trashed, her third novel, upstate New York-based Alison Gaylin (Hide Your Eyes and You Kill Me) has written a tense murder mystery in which a psychopath terrorizes Tinseltown.

When Simone Glass, 26, a graduate of the Columbia Journalism School, moves from the Big Apple to L.A., she becomes desperate when she cannot find employment.

She finally lands a job at the Asteroid, a supermarket tabloid described by the National Enquirer as "the lowest form of sleaze." The Asteroid's editor demands "heartwarming, eye-popping, gut-wrenching" copy. In other words, dig up the dirt, expose sordid secrets, and publish anything short of legal liability.

Working for this scandal sheet, Simone becomes a "domestic refuse expert," snooping around the dumpsters and garbage bins of Hollywood's stars and starlets, sorting through their trash and finding juicy items to titillate a gossip-loving public.

Simone finds more than she had bargained for: the sick handiwork of a serial killer that will place her own life in jeopardy.

Halfway through the book, we read: "The first victim's shoe in the second victim's garbage. The second victim's bracelet in the third victim's garbage. . . . Three dead young women, their throats all slashed. Connected by what someone had forced them to throw away. Their favorite belongings, their secrets, their lives. Trashed."

At Columbia, Simone had received high honors in journalistic ethics, but now she finds herself ensnared in a web of lies and deceit, wondering if she can trust anyone.

"Maybe lying was part of the atmosphere here," she muses, "in this city where everyone wanted to act or write or direct--to make up stories and play them out. Maybe fiction was in the air like smog, and there was no avoiding it."

Highly entertaining and satisfying, Trashed has a complex plot (in the best sense of the word), dozens of colorful characters, and smart, snappy dialogue. The author impresses us with her deft use of metaphors, similes, analogies, and witticisms, and she skillfully keeps the story moving.

Gaylin scatters numerous red herrings along the plot's pathway, and only a Sherlock Holmes could deduce the psychopath's identity until the very end.

Alison Gaylin makes her hardcover debut with "Trashed," the story of Simone Glass, an ambitious young journalist trying to make it big in L.A. Unfortunately, the only job she can get is working at Asteroid, a bottom-feeding tabloid that makes the Enquirer look like the Economist.

Glass' first assignment is to root through the garbage of the hot TV celeb of the moment, a foul task that turns up an intriguing find: a shoe belonging to a recently murdered actress. After the TV star is murdered in turn, a possession of hers is found in the trash of the killer's next victim.

The murder mystery of "Trashed" is creepy and suspenseful, but the real pleasure of the book is the witty look at the inner workings of a gossip rag and the tart spoof of Hollywood celebrity and buffoonery. "Trashed" could have been trashy, but instead Gaylin makes it a fun and juicy read.

The truth is I bought this book for my wife for Christmas along with Alison Gaylin's two previous books. The reason was her work was highly endorsed by my wife's favorite author, Harlan Coben. My wife flew through the first two and read this book in a sitting. So I am really recommending the book based on her enjoyment. Every other book she has recommended to me has been superb. It is funny, fast moving and, obviously, holds the reader's attention. As an aside, if you know the publishing industry, the fact that the third of her books is issued first in hardcover means she's meeting with increasing interest and success. My wife says five stars and recommends it highly.

This book breaks no new ground, but it covers some familiar bases in a nicely professional way. "Trashed" is a member of the general class of spunky-young-female-newcomer-breaks-into-a-new-profession mysteries. If the heroine of this piece is no Stephanie Plum, she is still entertaining enough in her own way.

In this case, Simone Glass is a bright, new, journalism graduate in her mid-twenties who has crossed the continent to take a job on a Los Angeles-based newspaper. Well, actually, it's a down-market throw-away, but hey, a job's a job, isn't it? On arrival, though, she finds that the expected job has evaporated along with the newspaper itself. Simone is forced to choose between seeking a position on a fish wrapper so appalling that it has been dissed even by the National Enquirer, or to slink home admitting her failure. Her choice, it need hardly be said, is as rapid as it is obvious.

In fact, Simone's experiences with her wretched scandal sheet are both the core and the best part of the book. It is at once amusing and oddly convincing that this spunky, hot-shot journalism major finds herself employed not as a reporter, but much lower down on the food chain as an "inside source," a person of flexible morality who worms her way into the confidence of the poor devils upon whom the sights of her low-minded rag are set and who can be quoted as a "knowledgeable source." And, oh, yes, lucky Simone also has the privilege of rooting around in the garbage cans and dumpsters of the rich and famous.

The specific mystery to be solved in this book is serviceable, no more and no less, and really serves as a backdrop for Simone's misadventures in LA's scandal-land.

A word of warning to the thin-skinned or easily shocked: In the nature of things, Simone observes (but thankfully does not participate in) some pretty lurid and explicit behavior, which she describes in perfectly straightforward terms and about which she offers little in the way of moral judgement.

All in all, the book is not bad. I found myself looking forward to the further adventures of this budding Lois Lane/Hildy Johnson. Looking forward, that is, until the closing pages in which the book takes a wholly unexpected swerve that takes it, in my opinion at least, absolutely in the wrong direction. My personal reaction on reaching the final page was not "Ah, well done," but, "No! How did that happen?"

Seven-eighths of this book yield a four-star rating, but the ending fumbles one star away.

Too bad.

LEC/AM/10-08

If you've ever gazed at the tabloids in the supermarket check-out line and secretly wanted to buy one to see what was behind the headline, this book is for you! It's also for you if you've ever bought a tabloid...and supposedly a lot of us do.

Allison's Gaylin novel takes place in the LA world of music, movies, and sex secrets of the stars. People are dying, and it's up to LA newcomer Simone Glass to get to the bottom of the deaths before she becomes the next victim. Engagingly told, but with a cast of characters a bit too large, this book was fun to read.

"Trashed" by Alison Gaylin - written in 2007. Again, a brand new author for me. Honestly, I wasn't overly impressed with the book. It was good, but not great. The story is about a journalism writer who moves to LA to get a job. When she can't find anything, she ends up at a tabloid just so she can write. There are a series of odd suicides among female actresses who slit their own throats. The writer is convinced that these are murders and she sets out to find out the truth. The story is well written but a tad too predictable for my tastes.

Beautifully written, tautly plotted. Gaylin's debut hardcover is suspenseful and fun and her heroine Simone is so realistically depicted you'd swear you know her. This book kept me reading well into the night. Highly recommended for those who love mystery with a good measure of quirky humor thrown into the mix.

At one time Nia Lawson was going to be the next Marilyn Monroe, but told her stylist about her affair with Congressman Mack Calloway. The stylist sold the story to the tabloids destroying two careers. Ten years later Nia thinks Mr. Big Shot will energize her career. Instead he kills her making it look like a Monroe suicide.

Simone Glass leaves New York for Los Angeles to work as a reporter on the Edge. After being unemployed for a month, she applies for a job at the Asteroid tabloid. Bureau chief Nigel Bloom asks her why she wants to work for his dump; she says she is desperate. Her first assignment is to sift through the garbage of soap opera star Emerald Deegan. They find four dead exotic parakeets and a shoe that Simone thinks belongs to Nia. Nigel blackmails Emerald into an interview or he will reveal that a PETA spokesperson killed four birds.

Simone and Asteroid reporter Kathy get inside Emerald's trailer, but before they learn much security Neil Walker tosses them off the set. She learns that Emerald's boyfriend Keith Furlong also hangs with Destiny a hooker. Destiny hopes the VIP she is seeing, can make her the next Nia. When he hurt her; she flees as the next Nia means death. Meanwhile Emerald commits suicide, but Simone has doubts and wonders about Nia's death too. Although she sees no connection, she seeks the links between Nia, Emerald and Destiny.

The heroine is delightful lead character who readers will appreciate her asides especially her conscience fits as she struggles with not being a reporter but as an infiltrator. The look at the tabloid sleaziness is amusing as nothing is sacred including garbage investigations. The support cast especially the reporters are a delight as their antics is humorous albeit unethical. Although why the killer targets trios of women is not lucid, fans will enjoy this Hollywood serial killer whodunit.

Harriet Klausner