Reel Stuff

In Bruns’s lackluster seventh Stuff mystery (after 2012’s Hot Stuff), Skip Moore and James Lessor, the less-than-professional PIs from Moore or Less Investigations, land jobs guarding the filming of an episode of TV’s Deadline Miami, despite their shaky track record. Consequently, Skip is there when a staged fall off a building by guest star Jason Londell results in the faded A-lister’s very real death. Jason’s shaken costar, Ashley Amber, who claims he was in love with her, hires the pair of PIs to find out if Juliana, Jason’s wife and agent, was responsible. James stays in Miami while Skip and his girlfriend, Emily Minard (who is the brains of the trio), visit Hollywood. They pass off Em as an aspiring actress to get close to Juliana, but the ruse is so successful that it may make her an actual movie star. The abundant movie and TV references don’t overcome the uninspired feel of this Moore or Less outing. (Dec.)