Book Review: The Actor's Guide to Murder

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Actor's Guide to Murder     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Rick Copp
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Humorous   Amateur Sleuth
Kensington, Nov 2003, $23.00, 248 pp.

He grew up on a Friday night sitcom and everyone adored him until he was caught making out with a male teenager at a gay rodeo. That picture in the paper torpedoed his career but his parents invested his money wisely so Jarrod Davis doesn’t have to work a day in his life if he chooses not too. He still wants to act so he makes the rounds but is committed to his live-in lover Charlie and their Pekinese dog Snickers.

At an audition Jarrod runs into his first love Willard Ray Hornsby, and his friend wins the part. Jarrod invites him to his home to celebrate getting the role and his birthday but Willard never arrives. Jarrod and Charlie check on Willard only to find him floating dead in his pool. The coroner rules it an accidental death but Jarrod is sure it is murdered and he intends to prove it at any cost.

THE ACTOR’S GUIDE TO MURDER is a serio-comic amateur sleuth novel featuring a stubborn, but lovable hero who risks his own life to see that justice prevails. His long-suffering lover and roommate has to keep getting him out of dangerous situations that makes for some very funny conversations between the two. Jarrod manages in his own indubitable fashion to make enemies of everyone. One other point of interest is that the hero believes his friend was murdered because his psychic predicted it.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner