Rick Copp, The Actor’s Guide to Adultery

The Actor's Guide to Adultery

Rick Copp

Kensington, Jan 2005, $22.95, 224 pp.

ISBN: 0758204973

Former child star Jarrod Jarvis' hopes of a comeback flop worse than a raw wiener. Worse, the California parole board releases Jarrod's personal stalker from his fame days, Wendell Butterworth, over his objection. Finally, bad things always come in threes when his manager and best friend Laurette Taylor marries odious soap opera actor Juan Carlos Barrancos.

Jarvis, accompanied by his lover, LAPD officer Charlie Peters, attends the wedding celebration at Hearst Castle. However, someone poisoned the champagne and one guest collapses into the wedding cake dead. Jarvis wonders if Juan is the culprit, having had a spat with the victim in public view just a little earlier. To find out, Jarrod accepts a role in a horror flick starring Juan so that he can be close to the groom while he investigates the poisoning. He also must cope with the return of wonderful Wendell, who plans to kill his soulmate Jarrod. Of course, the actor must also deal with a child star who deserves boiling in water and a mobster or two.

As he did with THE ACTORS GUIDE TO MURDER, Rick Copp provides an irreverent, amusing, anti-urban, noir, amateur sleuth that lays naked LaLa land. The who-done-it is cleverly presented while the Hollywood minute or two serves as a delicious background. Readers will appreciate this way out expos of the stars, the wannabees, the has-beens, and the killers through Jarrod's insightful perspective.

Harriet Klausner