The Stardom Affair: A Neil Gulliver and Stevie Marriner Novel

Early in Levinson’s workmanlike sixth novel featuring L.A. reporter Neil Gulliver and actress Stevie Marriner (after 2010’s The Andy Warhol Affair), the manager of the Heathcliffe Arms, the building in Westwood where Neil lives, asks for his help. The mother of 19-year-old TV star Roddy Donaldson, a fellow resident of the Heathcliffe Arms, is concerned because she hasn’t heard from her son for three days. When Neil enters Roddy’s apartment, Neil finds the actor, barely alive, in bed with two nude underage girls, both apparently dead of heroin overdoses. Neil hopes the discovery will jump start his journalism career, but to his chagrin, his managing editor takes him off the story, forcing him to sleuth unofficially. Some readers may feel that the hard-boiled narrative voice doesn’t always hit the mark (“She was a bleached-blonde pixie with legs like telephone poles and a face that fell two years before Rome”). Improbable character names, such as African-American preacher Ronnie Plantation, don’t help. (Apr.)