The Disappearing Act

January 1, 2021

In When Justice Sleeps, Abrams takes a break from her considerable political responsibilities to craft a legal thriller featuring Avery Keene, who clerks for Supreme Court Justice Wynn and takes over the background investigation of a key case when he falls into a coma. In Hairpin Bridge, Adams's No Exit follow-up, Lena Nguyen doesn't believe that estranged twin sister Cambry committed suicide; otherwise, she likely wouldn't have called 911 16 times before her death (100,000-copy first printing). In Hummel's Lesson in Red, follow-up to the Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine pick Still Lives, Maggie Richter faces another artworld mystery. In Edgar-nominated, New York Times best-selling author McCreight's Friends Like These, a bachelor party in the Catskills is a cover for a staged intervention to help one of the guests, but someone ends up dead (75,000-copy first printing). Abducted from her found-religion parents' isolated Arkansas homestead and returned unharmed yet still treated as damaged, teenage Sarabeth gladly makes her exit, but in International Thriller Writer Award winner McHugh's What's Done in Darkness, she gets called back five years later to help with a copycat crime. Following Mangin's nationally best-selling Tangerine, Palace of the Drowned stars flailing British novelist Frankie Croy, who is staying in a friend's vacant Venice palazzo in 1966 while struggling to regain her early writing promise and doesn't quite trust a fan who comes her way (200,000-copy first printing). Having had a huge international best seller with The Silent Patient, Michaelides aims for another winner in his Untitled new work (one-million-copy first printing). Following the New York Times best-selling, Reese Witherspoon-optioned Something in the Water, Steadman returns with The Disappearing Act, about a British actress who realizes that she's the only witness to the disappearance of a woman she auditioned with during Hollywood's harried pilot season.

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April 15, 2021
An up-and-coming actress risks her career to find a missing woman, discovering the dark side of Hollywood's glamour along the way. Coming off a big film role and an unexpected breakup, British actress Mia Eliot heads to Los Angeles for pilot season and a string of big-name auditions. While she's waiting for her second reading, she starts chatting with Emily, a fellow actress who's up for the same part. When Emily is called in to audition, she's worried that her parking meter is about to expire, and Mia offers to run outside and feed the meter for her. When Mia gets back, however, Emily is gone--leaving her keys and wallet behind. Mia's desire to see the items safely returned sets off a hunt for the missing woman, taking Mia's focus away from work at a critical time in her career. Despite an engaging central mystery--what happened to Emily?--the rest of the novel doesn't hold up. Mia has a frustrating lack of complexity; all her auditions become opportunities, and she's inexplicably na�ve. Supposedly an experienced actress, she reads like someone plucked from the street and dropped into Hollywood's orbit, and her constant surprise at the excessive luxury heaped upon her is grating. Her involvement with Emily--a woman she met once, for a few minutes--makes little sense, and the reveal at the end only makes it more implausible. The novel's consideration of Hollywood's dangers isn't unusual enough to be interesting, and the consideration of the gender dynamics of power is too clich�d to be thought-provoking. The Hollywood ground covered by this book is already well trodden.

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April 26, 2021
The day that London actor Mia Eliot, the narrator of this entertaining psychological thriller from Thriller Award finalist Steadman (Mr. Nobody), learns she’s on the shortlist for the prestigious BAFTA award, she also discovers her live-in actor boyfriend has accepted a role in a major film and is leaving her for his nubile young costar. Mia’s agent quickly arranges a trip for her to Los Angeles to “drum up some studio interest.” In an audition waiting room in L.A., Mia hits it off with the woman sitting next to her, Emily Bryant. When Emily asks Mia to feed her parking meter so she doesn’t miss her turn, Mia agrees. Mia returns to the room to find Emily gone. The sordid tale of murder and blackmail that follows builds to a climactic battle atop the iconic Hollywood sign. The authentic movie business details and nicely developed characters more than compensate for some confused plotting and Mia’s at times breathtakingly naive behavior. This tale of Hollywood glamour, cruelty, and myth is sure to win Steadman new fans. Agent: Camilla Bolton, Darley Anderson Literary, TV and Film Agency (U.K.).

May 15, 2021
Ethel Barrymore described Hollywood as "a glaring, gaudy, nightmarish set erected in the desert." That hasn't changed much, as we see in this engrossing thriller set during pilot season in Los Angeles. Cable networks and film studios are auditioning fresh faces to bring their new shows to life. British star Mia Eliot, fresh off a real-life stalker experience, a breakup, and--the good news--a BAFTA nomination for her portrayal of Jane Eyre, needs a change of scene, and seizes the opportunity to reach a new audience. She meets Emily, another actor, at an audition, and they immediately become friends. After Emily vanishes, a woman shows up at Mia's door claiming to be Emily. She is not the same woman; Mia is sure of it. But the police don't believe her. Mia puts an unbelievably good audition in jeopardy and her own safety on the line to find out what's going on. Steadman, both an author (Mr. Nobody, 2020) and an actress (she played Mabel Lane Fox in Downton Abbey), deftly brings her talent for characterization to her writing, combining an engaging mystery with a meaty look at the question of what is real in a land of make-believe. This glittering narrative with a totally beguiling protagonist makes for an absolutely perfect beach read.

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