RACHEL WEST AND THE FALLEN STARLET

YA author Mills’ first adult novel plunges a rising entertainment reporter into the mystery surrounding the death of her best and virtually only friend.

Rachel West may be nothing but a bottom-feeding copy editor for Icon, a celebrity gossip rag, but her star rises dramatically when Molly Byrne, a former Disney darling widely considered a has-been at 24, takes her under her wing after they meet in the bathroom of an LA nightclub. First Molly buys Rachel a designer handbag, then a series of designer shoes. The biggest prize, however, is access to Molly and her friends in the industry, along with exclusive stories about them, catapulting Rachel to her own bylines and a promotion to reporter. So Rachel loses a lot when Molly suddenly dies, and loses even more when she quits her job over untoward new demands from her boss. She’s left to form a murder club—sorry, a “murder klatch”—with her Palm Vista apartment neighbors: serenely omnicompetent Fadia, Crime Scene LA writer Richard, teenage computer hacker Jaz, and Jaz’s mother, registered nurse Elena. Using their highly varied skills, the team focuses on an earlier murder in which Molly had taken an interest: the killing a year ago of teen starlet Piper Standish. Along the way, they dig up so much dirt on Molly’s costars and collaborators that any of them could be guilty, and even readers surprised by the big reveal may feel there’s not all that much at stake.

Sadly, there’s no solution to the biggest mystery of all: why a star would have befriended a reporter in the first place.