Child star Mercy Talbot, now twenty-three-years-old, is a
handful. Her mother runs roughshod over everyone in Mercy's
career path, and keeps an even tighter rein on her daughter.
Until, following the death of a co-star, Mercy decides to
get away from it all and hightails it to Italy.
In Italy, Mercy meets up with Juliette Greyson, a hotel
executive who is more than personally acquainted with
Mercy's self-absorbed behavior. Juliette eyes Mercy just as
she is about to take a swan-dive into a fountain. She
whisks Mercy away to her family's estate, not sparing a
moment to realize that Mercy's baggage— her mother, the
entire cast and crew of the film she's starring in, and all
the young actress's addictions and personal quirks— would
come too.
What I wouldn't give to spend a few weeks at an Italian
villa! Mary McNamara's descriptions of the small towns and
hamlets over there, not to mention the Greyson estate,
simply add to my yearning. The picturesque landscape and
interesting people pop off the page.
Mercy is a study in contrasts, at times a petulant actress
and at times an insightful and underestimated young woman.
Except it's difficult for Juliette— and the reader— to know
for sure when Mercy is acting and when she's presenting her
true self. As such, McNamara keeps her characters and her
readers off balance until the end, heightening the desire to
finish reading the story.
What starts out as a young woman's journey toward freedom
and recovery from addiction morphs into a murder mystery.
When Mercy's entourage and film production follow her, so do
the secrets and unresolved issues she is trying to flee, and
Juliette finds herself smack dab in the middle of it all.
At times I wanted to choke Mercy for her antics. At other
times, I wanted to choke Juliette for putting up with
Mercy's antics. In the end, THE STARLET is an entertaining
read.
It’s a not-so-well-respected rule in Hollywood that
what happens on location stays on location. But when a hot
young leading man winds up dead in his Rome hotel room,
his costar’s life is about to go off the rails in a very
public way—even by celeb standards.
At the tender age
of twenty-three, Mercy Talbot has won an Oscar, battled
addiction, wrecked more than her share of cars, and burned
down her house. Her look-alike mother keeps her on a tight
leash (and fueled with an endless supply of OxyContin and
cocaine) and her producers demand a grueling schedule. By
the time she stumbles across Juliette Greyson, a Hollywood
insider on a much-needed vacation, Mercy is surrounded by
photographers and about to emerge drunk, high, and naked
from a public fountain. Whisking her away to an idyllic
Tuscan ‘retreat,’ Juliette is about to discover another
rule of Hollywood: wherever the starlet may go, the drama
will follow.
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