Lethal Seduction (2008)

Jackie Collins can't write her way out of a paper bag, but does anyone care? With the 20th novel Lethal Seduction, which brings back comely heroine/journalist Madison Castelli (of Collins's ''L.A. Connection'' series), the author of The Bitch and Hollywood Wives throws any remaining pretense of reality out the window of her speeding Jag. More tiresome cartoon than glitzy soap, Lethal Seduction offers Madison's discovery of her secret Mafia past; a hunky TV star who adulterous, pregnant wife is trying to poison him; and a bevy of gorgeous supermodels, strippers, rock stars and playboys, none of whom registers an iota of soul. It should all be hysterically funny, but unfortunately it's not. D+