Pretty as a Picture
A Novel
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3.9 • 73 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A Wall Street Journal, Seattle Times, and CrimeReads Best Mystery Book of 2020
"Funny, fast-paced, and a pleasure to read." --The Wall Street Journal
An egomaniacal movie director, an isolated island, and a decades-old murder--the addictive new novel from the bestselling author of Dear Daughter
Marissa Dahl, a shy but successful film editor, travels to a small island off the coast of Delaware to work with the legendary--and legendarily demanding--director Tony Rees on a feature film with a familiar logline.
Some girl dies.
It's not much to go on, but the specifics don't concern Marissa. Whatever the script is, her job is the same. She'll spend her days in the editing room, doing what she does best: turning pictures into stories.
But she soon discovers that on this set, nothing is as it's supposed to be--or as it seems. There are rumors of accidents and indiscretions, of burgeoning scandals and perilous schemes. Half the crew has been fired. The other half wants to quit. Even the actors have figured out something is wrong. And no one seems to know what happened to the editor she was hired to replace.
Then she meets the intrepid and incorrigible teenage girls who are determined to solve the real-life murder that is the movie's central subject, and before long, Marissa is drawn into the investigation herself.
The only problem is, the killer may still be on the loose. And he might not be finished.
A wickedly funny exploration of our cultural addiction to tales of murder and mayhem and a thrilling, behind-the-scenes whodunit, Pretty as a Picture is a captivating page-turner from one of the most distinctive voices in crime fiction.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When film editor Marissa Dahl, the misfit narrator of this smart, cinematically steeped page-turner from Little (Dear Daughter), agrees to replace the most recent crew member canned by megalomaniacal auteur Tony Rees from the hush-hush true crime mystery he's shooting on a tiny island off the Delaware coast, she has no idea what she's in for. But once she arrives on location at the stately hotel where, in 1994, 19-year-old aspiring actor Caitlyn Kelly was found dead on the beach in a case that was never solved, it doesn't take long for even someone on the autism spectrum like herself to spot alarming danger signals. Then again, it's tough to miss the explosion of a bank of lights on that set that showers the leading lady with shards of broken glass in what the editor learns is just the latest in a string of ostensible freak accidents that have plagued the production. The twisty plot becomes overly convoluted, but Little scores with the achingly vulnerable Marissa, whose specific set of skills enables her to see the big picture before anyone else. Psychological thriller fans will be well satisfied.
