Author(s): Alexandra Kleeman

Contemporary Fiction

A darkly funny, sexy and menacing novel about capitalism, desire and destruction in LA Patrick Hamlin, an east-coast novelist, has come to Hollywood with simple goals in mind: overseeing the production of a film adaptation of one of his books, preventing starlet Cassidy Carter's disruptive behavior from derailing said production, and turning this last-ditch effort at career resuscitation into the sort of success that will dazzle his wife and daughter back home. But California is not as he imagined: drought, wildfire, and corporate corruption are omnipresent, and the company behind a mysterious new brand of synthetic water seems to be at the root of it all. Partnering with the troubled Carter, the two of them investigate the sun-scorched city's darker crevices, where they discover that catastrophe resembles order until the last possible second …