The Actress

A Rita Farmer Mystery (Volume 1)

Elizabeth Sims

Minotaur Books

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Aspiring actress and single mother Rita Farmer has gone from struggling to find work to downright desperate. If she doesn’t land a paying job soon---horror movie, soap commercial, anything---she’s afraid her ex-husband will use her dire financial straits to take away Petey, her cherished four-year-old son.

While she’s charming the crowd at storytime at the L.A. public library, a celebrity defense attorney approaches her with an unusual job offer: So long as she’s discreet, Rita can rake in a thousand dollars a day preparing his client for her appearance in court. Easy money? Hardly. His client, Eileen Tenaway, is not only a wealthy heiress and a queen of the tabloids but she’s been charged with the murder of her own child. The attorney needs Rita to coach Eileen secretly to help her seem more sympathetic, more human. He needs the jury to believe not only her words but the subtle cues of body language, facial expressions, even vocal style. Rita knows she can do it, but what she doesn’t know is how determined she’ll become to find out what really happened to Eileen’s family---once her own life and Petey’s life depend on it.

The Actress, Elizabeth Sims’s engrossing new series debuting a spirited sleuth, delivers a fresh, behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood’s high society at its lowest.

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Reviews

Praise for The Actress

Praise for Elizabeth Sims

“Hilarious . . . Lillian is a true original.”
---Kirkus Reviews on Easy Street

“A nifty little puzzle solved by a most intriguing female detective.”
---Library Journal on Lucky Stiff

“[This] evening read will keep you up till dawn.”
---Booklist on Damn Straight

“Much charm and deprecating humor.”
---Kirkus Reviews on Damn Straight

Reviews from Goodreads

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Marti  rated it  
Jan 9, 2012
Hah! I thought with a title like this, that it would be hard to find in a list--I was wrong. It was also better than I thought that it would be--lots of action, twists and turns. The title IS somehat deceiving, since Rita Farmer does not spend her time acting, but rather coaching a murder suspect, ...more
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Margee  rated it  
May 24, 2010
Actress/single mother Rita is approached by a slick LA attorney who offers her big bucks as 'drama coach' to his wealthy client, in hopes she'll come off more sympathetic to the jury, having been arrested for killing her toddler daughter. Rita desperately needs the money, but how many balls can she ...more
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Mary  rated it  
Jul 11, 2009
This book is a page turner. An actress is hired by a lawyer to help a woman accused of murdering her young child to come across as a more sympathetic character. The actress gets deeply involved and so do her family and friends, including her own child. The action and interest never ceases and I hat ...more
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About the Author

Elizabeth Sims

Elizabeth Sims is the author of the Lambda Award--winning Lillian Byrd mysteries. A former bookseller, she lives on the west coast. Visit her online at www.elizabethsims.com.

Elizabeth Sims

Photo: Ernst Fine Art Photography
Elizabeth Sims

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Available Formats and Book Details

The Actress
A Rita Farmer Mystery (Volume 1)
Elizabeth Sims

Hardcover

Hardcover
St. Martin's Press
Minotaur Books
May 2008
Hardcover
ISBN: 9780312377274
ISBN10: 0312377274
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 400 pages
$24.95

e-Book Agency

Learn more about this edition
e-Book Agency
St. Martin's Press
Minotaur Books
May 2008
e-Book Agency
ISBN: 9781429945936
ISBN10: 1429945931
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 400 pages
$6.99
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