City of Angles

June 1, 2023
In Leaf's comedic murder mystery, a struggling actress finds a dreadful surprise in the trunk of her car. Vincenza Morgan moves from a small town in Minnesota hoping to start a grander life in Los Angeles, a "city of searchers" portrayed with lacerating wit by the author. The aspiring actress struggles, barely making ends meet working the cash register at a marijuana dispensary. She lands a big audition for a movie starring famous actress Reese Witherspoon, but just before she gets her chance to show what she can do, she discovers a corpse in the trunk of her car. The man has clearly been killed, and the murder weapon, a revolver, lies beside him. She recognizes the victim: Tom Selva, a fellow actor and a man with whom she was sometimes romantically involved. After her audition--it's just too important to miss, even to report a murder--she wrestles with her predicament, as the evidence clearly implicates her in the crime. Vincenza comes to believes that she's being followed by members of her cult-like church, the Church of Life, which promises its members access to "esoteric truths" and the establishment of a "new Eden." She begins to suspect the church's head, James Armstrong (who calls himself the "Supreme Pilot") might have had something to do with Selva's death, and she fears her own life is in danger--a state of affairs as chilling as it is morbidly funny, the signature style of the author. Leaf's portrayal of show business in Los Angeles isn't original at all--this is all well-covered ground--but the story is delightfully humorous, and the murder mystery is engrossing. The book is filled with hilarious insights, as in a description of incarceration: "In some ways jail was alike to a cruise ship. You tried to make friends. You were sickened by the food. You couldn't jump out the windows." This is lighthearted literary entertainment at its best--easily companionable, intelligent, and brimming with artful humor. A genuinely funny sendup of a much-lampooned industry.

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