Death in Daytime Book

This is my quick review of Eileen Davidson’s book “Death in Daytime”, which was written in 2008. It is her first soap opera mystery novel, (two additional books came out in 2009 and 2010.) Ms. Davidson currently plays Ashley Abbott on the Young and the Restless, but she has also appeared in that role on The Bold and the Beautiful. She also appeared in roles on the soap operas Days of Our Lives (Kristen, Susan and more), and Santa Barbara (Kelly Capwell). My summary/review does spoil some information, but does not give away the killer.

This novel is about the life of a soap opera diva, named Alexis who hates the term diva. She works on a soap called The Yearning Tide and has played a character named Tiffany Benedict for over 20 years. Her life is thrown up in the air when Marcy Blanchard, the head writer is murdered. Alex and Marcy had a very public argument, and since she found the body became the lead suspect. Marcy was killed with a Daytime Emmy.

Alex’s mom moved from the Midwest to California to help care for her pre-school aged daughter Sarah. Her former husband Randy stole from her and others, which made her tabloid fodder. He has disappeared from her life and left her to raise Sarah. Perhaps more will be made of this story as the series continues, but we shall see.

Alex is dating a guy named Paul who also works in television, but behind the scenes as a forensics specialist. Her best friend is George the hairdresser. We meet two detectives from the LAPD who are investigating the case. One is a super fan of the show (Davis) and the other (Jakes) develops feelings for Alexis. Within this novel, we meet other people, some of whom may be the killer, so I won’t write about them.

Like most cozy novels, this has bits of romance and comedy. It isn’t very descriptively violent for a book with crimes. The story kept my interest and the characters were well enough defined that I didn’t lose track when they appeared and reappeared later in the book. Unlike some other fiction novels that take place in the daytime soap milieu this one does not have thinly veiled references to current performers and situations in daytime.

While I enjoyed this book, I am going to wait on reading the next novels in the series. When I get to them, I will most certainly post blog entries sharing if they were as good as the first novel.