Adorably Dead

Lucy Frampton lives amid the glitzy trappings of Los Angeles. Her friends enjoy intimate relationships with aroma therapists and body sculptors, and her neighbors' estates boast screening rooms and humidity-controlled wine cellars. The exclusive Windermere Academy, which her daughter, Chloe, attends, 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 agents.

But Lucy, a sensible, transplanted Midwesterner, keeps her sights down-to-earth. She's an outstanding mom, a sexy wife, and an animator whose career is rocketing. But then, in a flash, her perfect world of storyboard mornings and car-pool afternoons goes from romantic comedy to film noir.

Lucy's new nanny, Brandon, college friend-and 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 video hidden among Brandon's things that shows a child committing a murder.

Though the authorities yawn, Lucy suspects the killer is cruising through classrooms and lunchrooms, as dewy-eyed innocent as any other kid. With a razor wit and a hilarious irreverence for the trappings of fame as her only weapons, Lucy launches a one-woman investigation, leading smack into the looking-glass world of child actors, where nine-year-olds can fire their own parents, where a child's smile commands top dollar-and a little killer is about to have the last laugh

*Originally published as Playing Dead.