Leading Lady (1992)

Coscarelli's novels have a hard edge unusual in commercial fiction — her last book, Pretty Women (no relation to the film of similar title), went so far as to have a covertly political theme — a Watergate style cover-up in the armed forces. This time out, Coscarelli uses Hollywood as the backdrop for a well-rounded portrait of a pathological family in Leading Lady. Aggressive, ambitious Laverne Thomas gives her 8-year-old daughter, Bunny, to a lecherous movie executive. Though a judicious sprinkling of similarly repulsive plot twists keeps the pages turning, they're given substance by the novelist's skillful characterizations, particularly of Laverne, a monster with believable motivations who commands the reader's appalled respect. Bathtub reading with bite. B+