{"product_id":"9780688158675","title":"Playing Dead: A Hollywood Mystery","description":" Lucy Freers lives amid the glitzy trappings of Hollywood. Her friends keep up intimate relationships with aroma therapists and body sculptors, and her neighbors' estates boast screening rooms and humidity-controlled wine cellars. The exclusive Windermere Academy, in which her daughter, Chloe, is a fourth-grader, has a shrink on the payroll to lead \"encounter sessions\" when tiny tempests threaten the students' sunny days. And even bit players in the Windermere school pageants have publicists and \u003ci\u003eüber\u003c\/i\u003e-agents.\u003cp\u003eBut Lucy, a sensible midwesterner transplanted to this land of Lotus, keeps her sights down-to-earth. She's an outstanding mom, a sexy wife (even with a second child on the way), and an animator whose star is rocketing high. But then, in a flash, her perfect world of storyboard mornings and car pool afternoons goes from romantic comedy to film noir. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLucy's nanny, Brandon, a former filmmaker--and her onetime lover (but that's another story)--is shot dead while driving her husband's car. It's unclear who the intended victim was, but then Lucy stumbles upon something even more chilling: a videotape hidden among Brandon's things that shows a child in the act of murder. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThough the authorities scoff, Lucy suspects the killer is cruising through classrooms and lunchrooms with Hollywood's privileged children, as dewy-eyed innocent as any other baseball-capped kid. With a razor wit and a hilarious irreverence for the trappings of fame as her only weapons, Lucy launches a one-woman investigation. She brings us smack into the looking-glass world of child actors, where nine-year-olds can fire their own parents, and where little-girl \"wannabes\" bat false eyelashes atyoung, swaggering superstars. It is a brilliantly observed world where a child's smile commands top dollar and a killer is about to have the last laugh.  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47027387072752,"sku":"9780688158675","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780688158675_p0.gif?v=1763614960","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780688158675","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}