Shooting Star

Within the improvisational world of avant-garde filmmaking, an up-and-coming young actress struggles for normalcy in this taut suspense story from Edgar Award nominee (for Shattered Moon ) Green. Nyiaok Wyatt is on location in Santa Fe when events in her life begin to parallel scenes in director Leonard Jacobs's film, as they had during the filming of their m previous collaboration , during which another actress was shot to death. Jacobs believes actors should become so immersed in their roles that the line between reality and celluloid blurs, but Nyia, who has been receiving letters from a seemingly demented fan, feels threatened, especially after she is shot at herself. To assuage her fears, Jacobs hires detective Harmon BohlandOK , who poses as an author writing about the director. Then another young actress drives off a cliff on the motorcycle Nyia was to have ridden. Since Nyia and the two dead women have all been Jacobs's leading ladies--on and off the set--Bohland wonders whom the killer is really aiming for. Green's captivating preoccupation with the distinction between real and screen life culminates when a video camera catches the murderer's inadvertent confession. Author tour. (May)