Book review - Dead to Me

Title: Dead to Me
Author: Mary McCoy
Genre: mystery/historical fiction
Similar books: I'm Glad I Did by Cynthia Weil
                     What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
Rating:

Pretty good detective story

Summary: Alice never knew what made her older sister Annie run away or where she might have gone. Their parents never talk about Annie. She'd hoped that Annie ended up somewhere nice. The reality is far worse. When Annie turns up comatose in a hospital, the victim of a savage beating, Alice sets out to figure out what happened to her sister with the help of a private investigator who claims to be her friend. She finds herself caught up in a side of Hollywood she'd never seen, filled with desperate young women and savage celebrities.

My Opinion: This was pretty much the ideal teen mystery. McCoy does a great job of setting the scene, really hitting the nail on the head with the culture of the golden age of Hollywood. Even the role of women and the corruption among the police are present in this novel. It really has that classic noir feel, more cold and clinical than the constant pulse pounding of a modern thriller. I could easily imagine this as a movie or an episode of a period crime drama. Well worth the read.
Advanced Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.