Janyce Stefan-Cole
Hollywood Boulevard is the debut novel of Janyce Stefan-Cole, an artist turned writer. It is the story of Ardennes Thrush, a talented actress who quits acting as she is nearing the peak of her career.
Ardennes is living, temporarily, with her husband at the Muse Hotel, off Hollywood Boulevard. Andre is a noted director, and he is shooting a film in Los Angeles. Andre works long hours, and Ardennes is often alone. She is intelligent and introspective and seemingly happy with her decision to quit acting. She has enough money to live comfortably, and sees no need to continue the terrifying process of truly becoming each character she plays. She spends much of her time in Los Angeles watching the comings and going in the hotel, as well as the private homes she can see from her balcony. Ardennes begins to fear that she is being stalked.
When Ardennes’s agent dies, she is thrust into the spotlight. Soon after, Ardennes receives a box of dead roses. Clearly, her stalker is real. When Ardennes does investigating on her own, she learns that many years ago, there was a fire in the suite next to hers. The life of the woman who was killed in that fire was strikingly similar to the life of the main character in Andre’s film. Along with an attractive detective, Ardennes wonders if this connection has any bearing on her stalker.
Hollywood Boulevard was a quick, fun read. The only unbelievable part was that Ardennes never asked Andre about a possible connection between his film and the Muse Hotel fire. That would have saved everyone a lot of aggravation!
Once again, many thanks to the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program for sending this book to me.
In USA:
To be published in hardcover-April 2012-Unbridled Books
La Bibliofille 