The Dead Celeb, by Lindsay Maracotta (Coronet, £5.99 in UK)

Lucy Freers is an award-winning film animator living with her producer husband, Kit, in LA. Visiting said husband on location in New Mexico, she comes across spaced-out production assistant Cheryl, befriends her and then, answering a midnight call for help, finds the dead body of fashionable director Jeremy Lord in Cheryl's room. Soon afterwards Cheryl herself is found in a coma, apparently the victim of a drug overdose. Lucy, in her scatter-brained manner, starts sticking her nose into affairs that soon have her in dire danger. Maracotta, a Hollywood insider herself, uses her specialist knowledge of the Tinsel City to pen a deviously mischievous account of the skulduggery that goes on there. Reminds me a little of the work of Janet Evanovich, and that's no bad thing.