To freelance journalist Cat Austen, it seems as if her entire family, indeed, the entire population of Atlantic City, New Jersey, has suddenly become star-struck. A TV series CopWatch bought the rights to an article Cat had written about an earlier event in her life* and the company is in town to shoot footage for the movie, hiring Cat as on-set advisor. CopWatch has managed to sign the elusive actress Tommi Ann Butler to play the screen role of Cat, and if the show is a hit, there could be a spinoff series.

An Oscar nominee for her last movie, Tommi Ann is managed by her husband, Ben Butler, who seems to have the golden touch for finding talent. Besides his beautiful wife, also on Ben’s roster and taking part in this movie are a young street rapper who has renamed himself Bigg Phat P.I.G., and a beautiful young stand-in for Tommi Ann, Cici Bonnaker, who will star in the spinoff series.

Only Cat and Victor, her police lieutenant boyfriend, remain aloof from the craziness, Cat because she lived the real “scene” and Victor, because he disapproves of sensationalizing murder. By her proximity to the actors, Cat hopes to score some exclusive interviews, especially with Tommi Ann. Her biggest competition is from a fellow journalist, Ron Spivak, who has pulled the coup of actually getting a part in the movie and so will have closer access. He mocks Cat’s intentions and hints that he’s on the trail of a big story.

All Cat can determine is that it seems to involve Cici, who bears a remarkable physical resemblance to Tommi Ann. Ron abruptly leaves the set for a few days, prompting the director’s ire. He returns smug and glowing. When Cat tries to corner him, he puts her off until after he shoots his big scene. In a gruesome twist of Art imitating Life, he is shot and killed during the scene with Tommi Ann watching, just as his true-life counterpart was shot and killed in front of Cat.

Cat decides to retrace Ron’s final steps and eventually uncovers a twenty-year-old Texas murder, the small town disappearance of two teenagers and a very expensive private adoption. Along the way she stumbles into evidence that explains why the popular young rapper has so much trouble with his lines and finds the threads that link Ben Butler’s eclectic talent to the past. Resolution comes with a price and some tough moral decisions for Cat.

Rubino gives her characters depth and humor, making it easy for the reader to relate to and care about what happens to them. Their pasts and the present, the fantasy and the realities are layered throughout the book like one of Mama Jennie’s lasagnas, blending into a delicious treat.

Plot Twist spoofs the fantasy of the movie world, making you forget for a moment that it is also a work of fiction. But, as Tommi Ann says, “Reality is what you make it.”

--K.W. Becker

*Death of a DJ