By Elizabeth Little
This book is about a murder happening on the set of a movie about a murder/true-crime story. The heroine, Marissa, has a brain that works on a different level from the rest of us, though the few people who have genuinely cared for her in her life assure her “there is nothing wrong with [her]”. She is obsessed with movies, making her career choice of Movie Editor an obvious one. With her attention to detail, vivid imagination, and desire to be left alone as much as possible, she is one of the gifted individuals who has found her passion and thus never has to work a day in her life.
Until she and her best friend, an award-winning director that she has collaborated with to get them both to the top of Hollywood, gets a boyfriend. Boyfriends – the ruination of so many great gal relationships. So now, passion or not, wary-and-barely-tolerant-of-other-people Marissa must remember her agent’s phone number, and actually apply for a job to pay the bills. She gets one – with another huge name director that happens to suddenly need an editor
Once on the remote island where shooting is taking place, the reader is introduced to a plethora of characters. Each begins as a stereotype but is fleshed out as a real human and memorable. Marissa’s interactions with each are priceless, starting with the chauffeur sent to pick her up and his mysterious past and unique patience with Marissa’s quirks. The adolescent girls who aspire to Nancy Drew and podcast fame enlist her aid to solve the original murder, clearing the only suspect’s name. Marissa reluctantly agrees, and soon after a murder occurs on set.
Plagued by accidents, this crime seems the final death knell of a movie that shouldn’t have been made. Marissa, and her unique trains of thought, help connect dots that seem otherwise unrelated. With her chauffeur/former SEAL, teenage girl detectives, and a heart throb who hides his intellect from everyone else, she attempts to solve the mystery before she becomes the next victim.
Soundtrack
- Theme from Jaws
- Red Right Hand by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
- Theme from Terms of Endearment
- Inna Gadda Da Vida by Iron Butterfly
- Bang Bang by Nancy Sinatra
- Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve
Pros & Cons & Potential Spoilers
Pros
- I loved all the movie details. The language, the process, the behind-the-scenes-ery – all my jam and added so much to the story
- Marissa is awesome – though full of self-doubt constantly, she always inadvertently speaks her mind and has earned every accolade she has received
- Isaiah and she are perfect: the chemistry, the nuance, and the reality!
- I genuinely didn’t know “who did it” and didn’t care – that NEVER happens to me! I enjoyed just following along in the story – I still can’t believe I wrote that or that it is true
Cons
- If you don’t love movies, I’m not sure if you will be as over the moon as I am/was – I don’t think it got monotonous, but I can see how it could
- There is no sequel or start of the series in evidence – she would make a great detective series heroine!