Lily (her first-person PoV) acted in a film when she was 4. It's still shown each Xmas on TV. She met prettier Nina at 10. Now they're 32, bonding over failed auditions. By chance she meets Adam who she went to stage-school with. He's cute, and a moderately successful actor. She flirts. We learn at a chapter-ending that he'll end up dead in a swimming pool, wearing her ring. After a few months they meet again. Before their 3rd date she has to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement. He's a closet gay, wanting her to be his "red carpet plus one". His agent gets her an audition for "Hollow Moon" which she passes. The agent also tells her to check that he's not lapsing into bad habits. Her mother was her agent, divorced from her father who's a working actor.
Adam dumps her, thinking her too invasive, then apparently scuppers her next job. He goes with Talia. Lily falls out with Nina (thinking that she's spreading rumours) then goes off-net in SE Asia for 3 months.
When she returns she’s employed as partner to Dan, who’s not gay. She goes to a country house party with many of the characters we know. Next morning she’s the first to find the body, but doesn’t say. 3 months later she realises that his drugs may have been tampered with. Or was it a jealous lover? Or did he blackmail someone to get a role? Talia tries to poison her.
We learn that when Lily was 14 she was in competition for a role. She knew that the director was interested in young girls, but didn’t warn her 14 year old rival Rose. At the end we learn who Rose has become.
So it's a glimpse of the acting life (“I’d only seen him cry on stage before”) followed by a whodunnit.
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