THE JAMES DEAN AFFAIR

It's September 30, 1955, and hotshot young actor James Dean has been driving his beloved two-door Porsche Spyder too fast to stop when he needs to. “Dead as a doorknob,” says a phlegmatic onlooker, peering into the wrecked convertible. So if Dean died 45 years ago, who's murdering all those people and telling the world he's Dean? That's what Neil Gulliver and Stevie Marriner, in their third sleuthing adventure (The Elvis and Marilyn Affair, 1999, etc.), have charged themselves to discover. Neil, an entertainment columnist with the Los Angeles Daily, and Stevie, the celebrated “Sex Queen of the Soaps,” are horrified witnesses to the first of the gory string of homicides when they gather with other VIP’s on behalf of the James Dean commemorative stamp, everybody enjoying a nice enough party until it's crashed by James Dean. Well, he says he's Dean, he certainly looks like Dean, and veteran actor Nico Mercouri confirms that he’s Dean. And he ought to know, since the two appeared together in the landmark Rebel Without a Cause. But if, in fact, he is Dean, what's he doing with a .38 in his hand, and why does he use it to pump two lethal bullets into his buddy Nico's chest? These are questions that take a long time—a very long time—for wisecracking Neil and gorgeous Stevie to (sort of) answer.

Star-crossed lovers Stevie and Neil do their best, but for readers who aren’t current members of a James Dean Fan Club, it probably won't be enough.