Jaine Austen is a freelance writer whose biggest client is Toiletmasters Plumbers. She lives with her spoiled cat Prozac and gets pulled into messes with her parents even though they live 3000 miles away in Florida. She ended up helping to solve a murder when one of her clients was arrested.
Jaine is thrilled when her best friend Kandi gets her a chance to write a script for Muffy ‘n Me, a syndicated comedy about a teenager who develops magical powers. Kandi managed to get a job with the show, finally allowing her to leave the animated show about a cockroach that she has been writing for. Jaine starts dreaming of movie to a beach house in Malibu, but she crashes back to reality once she arrives at Miracle Studios. The place is very run down, with gross slop served as food, furniture that is dangerous to sit on if not covered, and evidently there is a rat problem since Kandi keeps a tennis racket handy to deal with them.
Jaine soon discovers that the set is like a soap opera, with handsome Quinn Kirkland sleeping with basically every woman he sets eyes on, though somehow he managed to keep that from the women. Once that comes out, there are a lot of upset women, and it isn’t long before Quinn winds up dead, dropping deal during the filming of the episode Jaine wrote. The police zero in on Kandi has the main suspect, so Jaine gets to work to find the real killer. Her neighbor Lance, with the super hearing, and even the homicide detective, want her help in selling scripts. She has also to deal with, through email, a crisis between her parents over a suspected affair.
Last Writes seems to be set about a year after the events of the first book based on things said. Jaine has stuck to her writing jobs since then, but she is ready to jump into a new career as the writer of a comedy television show. Time is taken to set up things at Miracle Studios and introduce the people there, including future victim Quinn. Once things are established, Quinn ends up dead and in no time, Jaine is trying to solve another murder. The plot is fun and entertaining overall and I think it makes the book worth reading. I really like that Jaine isn’t stuck in a stupid love triangle like has happened in other series. Hopefully that won’t develop later on since I usually dislike that.
It does take almost 100 pages for Quinn to be killed. That didn’t bother me because those pages work well to set things up, including laying the foundation for several potential suspects who had some sort of motive. The mystery is interesting and makes for an entertaining read. I really wasn’t sure how things would work by the end, though once I finished the book, I did remember a small clue that came out earlier in the book that did point to the killer. The fact that the homicide detective in charge has no issue with Jaine asking questions does seem a little unbelievable. She does do one or two questionable things while investigating, but I like the way she handles things better than some of the other amateur investigators in other cozy mysteries I’ve read. She isn’t as sneaky about what she is doing for the most part, and she really isn’t trying to keep information from the police. I don’t get the sense that she wants to solve the case before the police like I do with some other characters. It seems more like Jaine just wants to make sure the right person is caught, regardless of who catches them.
Much of what happens in Last Writes takes place somewhere at Miracle Studios. The work that Jaine does with Kandi and the head writers is shared some, though not in great detail. It is made clear that a final script can bear little resemblance to the first draft as jokes are ruthlessly cut if they don’t get laughs during the table read. The work is far less glamorous than Jaine had anticipated, but she continues her dreams of a Malibu beach house. The studio is a rundown, nasty place. Author Laura Levine has worked as a writer on different successful comedies. I do wonder if any of the things tied to the studio and people working there were influenced by people or situations she dealt with doing that work.
Jaine is a fun main character and I really like her. The book is written from her point of view, so all of her odd thoughts are shared, including what she thinks Prozac is thinking or what she’d like to tell people. Jaine is a nice woman who generally doesn’t want to hurt or upset people, which is how she ends up agreeing to do things, like read scripts. She does think about food and her weight at times, but not so much that it gets annoying. Prozac is demanding when it comes to her food - she prefers expensive tuna, salmon or crab that Jaine spoils her with - and she has a tendency to find Jaine’s nicer articles of clothing to nap on.
Kandi is still man crazy, and that indirectly leads to her being considered a suspect. She is nice, though flighty when it comes to men. Jaine’s parents show up through the emails they send their daughter, each thinking the other has some kind of problem. They are funny. Lance can still hear everything going on in Jaine’s apartment, though he doesn’t seem as annoying as he was in the first book when he complained about everything being too loud. They seem to be more friends now.
Audrey and Stan are the married head writers on the show. They don’t seem to have a very loving relationship. Audrey seems cold and detached most of the time, and Stan guzzles gin like it is the water he disguises it as. Bianca is Audrey’s nasty assistant who seems to like to stir things up if she can. Vanessa is the young, self absorbed star of the show who plays Muffy. She isn’t around that much, so she isn’t that developed. Zach is the mostly talent less actor who plays Muffy’s boyfriend. He spends much of his time mooning over Vanessa while she doesn’t give him the time of day.
Wells Dumont is an older British actor who plays the neighbor to Muffy’s family. He tends to talk a lot about his past and he flirts with Jaine a lot. Dale Burton plays Muffy’s father. He is always acting like he is involved in phone calls with important or famous people. Quinn Kirkland plays Muffy’s uncle and he seems to be the most popular on the show. He is funny and handsome and very much a ladies man, which causes a lot of people to get upset with him. Some other people tied to the tv show turn up here and there without doing much or standing out much.
Last Writes is a fun, entertaining second book in the Jaine Austen Mystery series. People that enjoyed the first book in the series should also like this one. People who like cozy mysteries should give this one a chance. The book is a bit silly at times, so it probably won’t appeal to everyone.