Kozak's Dead Ex - Bev Russell, Library Director

(This column appeared in the February 3, 2008, Star-Herald)

 

Reading and laughing are two things that I really enjoy. When a book makes me laugh out loud, then I know I am onto something. The other night the cat and the dog and I were reading in bed. (Well, actually, I was reading, not the cat and dog. I think they would enjoy it, but they haven’t got the hang of it.) Anyway, I started to laugh (out loud)! An author who can accomplish laugh-out-loud humor is a special writer. The author is Harley Jane Kozak. The book is "Dead Ex".

Harley Jane Kozak is a native Nebraskan. She was raised in Lincoln where her mother taught at the University of Nebraska. As a child, the theater fascinated her. In high school, she performed with the Nebraska Repertory Theater. After high school, she pursued her love of acting and attended NYU’s School of the Arts. Working in soap operas such as "Guiding Light" and "Santa Barbara" eventually led to prime time television and movies. "Parenthood" and "Arachnophobia " are among her film credits. Although she has enjoyed great success as an actress and performer, she may have found her niche as an author.

"Dead Ex’s" Wollie Shelley (after Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley) designs greeting cards, paints murals, and is presently moonlighting as a dating correspondent for a talk show, "SoapDirt", when she is not getting drawn into murder cases. Currently under-employed and between homes, she is living, at least temporarily, with her boyfriend Simon Alexander, a FBI agent.

While enjoying a bedroom romp with Simon, Wollie receives a message on the answering machine from her best friend Joey. Their "Ex" David Zetrakis, a highly successful Hollywood producer, was found dead in his home. Both women dated him at one time. Although suffering from pancreatic cancer, David actually died from a gunshot wound to the head. Murder? Suicide, assisted or unassisted? The police don’t know, but it quickly becomes evident that Joey Rafferty Horowitz, Wollie’s good friend, is a prime suspect.

Several factors make the cops suspicious of her. Besides being David’s "Ex", he had fired Joey from one of his soap operas thus ending her career as a soap opera actress. She was also the last person to see David alive, plus he left her a painting, valued at a million dollars. To complicate matters, Joey’s husband Elliot drowns under suspicious circumstances. Although Joey is hot-tempered, extravagant, somewhat promiscuous and inclined toward illegal substances, Wollie is convinced that she is incapable of murder. Wollie must find the murderer and prove her friend’s innocence.

In "Dead Ex" the mystery is just the thread that allows Kozak to poke fun at "Show Biz" peculiarities and to allow her eccentric characters to interact. While Kodak’s writing is witty and snappy, her wit is never acerbic but is all in good fun. It is obvious she sees the humor behind Hollywood’s pretense but laughs at it along with us.

The scene that had me laughing in bed deals with Wollie’s new dye-job. Tricia, the hostess of "SoapDirt", demands that Wollie dye her hair, because their hair is so similar in color, they could be "hair twins". Although Wollie is more than a little dubious about this, she is assured by both Tricia and the show’s producer Kim that they will just tone it down a shade. Tricia explains it as a production necessity. When Jen gapes upon the finished product, her shocked reaction is, "My God, she looks like she’s on a break from clown college." The red dye has turned her hair—Hi-C, cheese curl, construction cone—orange! As the scene continues Wollie realizes "with mounting panic" that her hair is even brighter when dry. "A human flare. Radioactive." She knows this because no one will look at her.

Reviewers compare Harley Jane Kozak’s series favorably with Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. Janet Evanovich makes me smile. Harley Jane Kozak makes me laugh. If you are in need of a good laugh or two or more, read "Dead Ex". The library does not have her earlier books yet, but I can guarantee you we will have them before too much longer.

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