Ace freelance PR woman and amateur detective Temple Barr is
30-going-on-19 when she agrees to do homicide lieutenant
Carmen Molina a big favor and go undercover as a contestant
at Teen Idol, a TV reality show. The lieutenant is worried
because someone is threatening the contestants--including
her own 13 year old daughter--by leaving mutilated Barbie
dolls all over Las Vegas.
Reliving the years of melodrama and teen angst while acting
as a nanny-cum-diversion is bad enough, but Temple is
dismayed to discover her professional nemesis is in charge
of PR for Teen Idol-and, even worse, her romance novelist
aunt has flown in from New York to be a judge. Can
redheaded Temple fool her nearest and least dearest with a
black dye job to complement her new punk persona, Xoë Chloë
Ozone?
Temple is on her own among 28 unnatural blonds, who all say
they'd kill to make the final cut and be named Teen Idol
Queen... and one of them might actually do it. Usually
Temple has an ace or two up her sleeve, but Max Kinsella,
Temple's ex-magician boyfriend, is AWOL plotting to
infiltrate a sinister cabal of terrorist magicians, and
neighbor-slash-sometime love interest Matt Devine is in
Chicago, tracking down his shocking family roots.
Luckily, there's one one alpha male Temple can always lean
on: Midnight Louie, her black alley-cat roommate. Louie is
already on the case, ensuring that all the "little dolls"
under his care debut on national TV as more than lovely
corpses.