DESPERATION WILL KILL YOU
by Samantha Hart
A striving 20-something record executive is accused of murder in Hart’s novel, set in 1990s Hollywood.
Franny Lane, 25, is the youngest female in senior management at the Los Angeles–based Sojourn Records, having pushed to sign the previously passed-over, now-hot band the Palominos to the label. At a group meeting with producer Don Bradford, who is seeking music for his next movie, Franny successfully pitches the Palominos—and piques his romantic interest. Raised by uncaring foster parents until the age of 12, when her honorable mention in a poetry contest got her whisked to a U.K. boarding school by a mysterious benefactor, Franny is emotionally guarded and initially resists Don, but then falls into a relationship with him. She also starts going to therapist Susan Pearlman, a practitioner to whom, initially unbeknownst to Franny, Don sends all of his girlfriends. This group includes Maggie Reilly, a talented actress and director just dumped by Don; Kiley Winters, Maggie’s erstwhile friend and lover whom Maggie decries as “a nobody, working odd waitressing jobs and aspiring to be a singer, actress—or even, apparently, a mistress” after Kiley sets out to snag Don; and Jennifer Day, the lead of Don’s film (titled Desperation Will Kill You). When the blackmailing Kiley is killed at Don’s house, Franny is framed for Kiley’s murder. Luckily, Franny’s benefactor has had a PI following her who can help prove her innocence—but not before a trial is held that includes Maggie and her former foster mother giving testimony.
Marketing executive Hart, the author of Blind Pony: As True A Story As I Can Tell (2021)—a memoir of her abusive childhood and varied career following landing in 1970s Los Angeles—here crafts a colorful Hollywood noir in which several characters put the maxim “Desperation Will Kill You” to the test just as a film with that name is being made (Don proclaims the movie is “slated to usher in the 90s”). As in Quentin Tarantino’s film Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, an over-the-top weapon first used in a movie gets wielded for other uses by a character in reality, in this case the “infamous dart gun from [Don’s previous film] Temptress of the Jungle.” There’s also plenty of Valley of the Dolls–like pill-popping, with Don’s besotted shrink illegally providing Don (and indirectly, his women) with prescription drugs to deal with the stresses of Hollywood life, culminating in a DEA/DOJ investigation. As in Susann’s camp-classic novel, Hart’s Hollywood women alternately compete with and support one other, with Maggie’s shifting behavior toward Franny careening back and forth in a head-spinning fashion near the conclusion of the novel. Villainous Don is given a troubling yet arguably era-appropriate psychology, with Hart sketching in a backstory of a “humiliating” incident in which young Don was ostracized for acting on his homosexual desire for his childhood best friend, leading to his vow “never to love anyone again for fear of experiencing this intense shame once more.” Ultimately, in its portrayal of Franny’s triumphant arc, the novel offers satisfying “girl power” fantasy and fulfillment.
A rollicking retro Tinseltown thriller.