Final Cut

April 1, 2023
Murder casts a dark shadow over yet another Hollywood production--and particularly over its key costumer. Despite his name, producer/director Marcus Pray is a predator who bullies his colleagues, does his best to surround himself with Victoria's Secret models, and hits on every woman in sight. Joey Jessop, the "queen of made-to-order" at Left Coast Costumes, is a consummate pro, but part of her professionalism has been to turn a blind eye to Pray and his kind as he asserts his seigneurial rights. Pray's new production is threatened with the worst kind of publicity and even a shutdown after Joey finds Courtney Lisle, the second assistant director, dead of undisclosed causes. Since Courtney was Pray's semisecret lover, their lives are both held up to scrutiny. But it's even worse for Joey, who left her own lover, first AD Eli Logan, over his uncontrollable coke habit a year ago only to see him pair up with Courtney. Popvibe reporter Maggie Fuller keeps hounding her for an interview; an anonymous source keeps texting her threats of vengeance; Det. Corinne Blankenship, of the LA County Sheriff's Office, keeps expressing impatience with her protestations of innocence; and the production keeps being interrupted by an escalating series of accidents that seem like anything but. McCown steeps her workmanlike whodunit in a million sharply observed details that give you a painfully keen sense of what it's like to work on a Hollywood production on which somebody else has all the power. The perfect remedy that will keep star-struck wannabes down on the farm.

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May 8, 2023
McCown’s entertaining but overwritten debut centers on Joey Jessup, a Hollywood costumer whose latest job turns deadly. Her gig on a high-profile superhero movie would be a dream come true if the film weren’t directed by the scummy Marcus Prey. To make matters worse, Prey’s assistant director is none other than Joey’s ex-boyfriend, Eli, and the second AD is Eli’s new girlfriend, Courtney. Joey manages to keep her head down and her eyes on her work until, on the first day of shooting, she finds Courtney dead on a Malibu beach near the film set. Painted by the police and the internet as a jilted ex, Joey becomes the primary suspect and sets out to clear her name without causing more waves at her increasingly toxic workplace. McCown’s 25 years as a real-life film costumer lend the proceedings juicy authenticity, but her plotting tends to sprawl: she throws too many characters in the mix, many of them extraneous to the core mystery. Joey’s final confrontation with the killer is a blood-pumping injection of welcome excitement, but readers will have had to make their way through one too many games of Hollywood inside baseball to get there. Still, there’s promise for the series, even if this first entry isn’t quite Oscar-worthy. Agent: Anne Collette, Rees Literary.