Die a Little - Megan Abbott

Written by Megan Abbott
Read by Ellen Archer
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc.
Release date: August 19, 2008
Duration: 06:37:35

How does a respectable young woman fall into Los Angeles’ hard-boiled underworld?

Shadow-dodging through the glamorous world of 1950s Hollywood and its seedy flip side, Megan Abbott’s debut, Die a Little, is a gem of the darkest hue. This ingenious twist on a classic noir tale tells the story of Lora King, a schoolteacher, and her brother Bill, a junior investigator with the district attorney’s office. Lora’s comfortable, suburban life is jarringly disrupted when Bill falls in love with a mysterious young woman named Alice Steele, a Hollywood wardrobe assistant with a murky past.

Made sisters by marriage but not by choice, the bond between Lora and Alice is marred by envy and mistrust. Spurred on by inconsistencies in Alice’s personal history and possibly jealous of Alice’s hold on her brother, Lora finds herself lured into the dark alleys and mean streets of seamy Los Angeles. Assuming the role of amateur detective, she uncovers a shadowy world of drugs, prostitution, and ultimately, murder.

Lora’s fascination with Alice’s “sins” increases in direct proportion to the escalation of her own relationship with Mike Standish, a charmingly amoral press agent who appears to know more about his old friend Alice than he reveals. The deeper Lora digs to uncover Alice’s secrets, the more her own life begins to resemble Alice’s sinister past — and present.

Steeped in atmospheric suspense and voyeuristic appeal, Die a Little shines as a dark star among Hollywood lights.

“Ellen Archer takes Meghan Abbott’s stylish exercise in noir and delivers a dynamite performance. In 1950s Los Angeles, mousy schoolteacher Lora King becomes alarmed when her brother falls for a glamorous, possibly dangerous, woman. Her suspicions are heightened when a mutual friend is murdered. Archer handles Lora’s first-person narrative smoothly. As Lora journeys through the seedy side of the movie industry, uncovering drugs, murder, and her sister-in law’s disturbing secrets, Archer doesn’t strike a false note. Abbott’s well-drawn period piece offers an unusual heroine. Lora King makes an appealing addition to the noir canon, thanks to Ellen Archer’s authentic portrait of a self-deprecating innocent teetering on the edge of self-awareness.” S.J.H. © AudioFile 2006,

We could call Megan Abbott an honorary Femme Fatele. Die a Little was written in 2005 and she is writing some of her books in the style of Vera Caspary, Dorothy B. Hughes and others of the mid 20th century.