Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy Book

The elusive Lady Lana (a.k.a. Sammy’s mom) ran off to Hollywood nearly a year ago to get “discovered.” But when Sammy discovers that her mom has changed her name, dyed her hair, and told everyone she’s only 25, she decides Lana needs a little reality check. I mean, it’s one thing to have her mom ditch her. But it’s another to find out she’s created a life for herself where Sammy can’t possibly exist.

But Hollywood is a shock. Everyone is pretending here. No one is who or what they seem in this starlet-eat-starlet world. So when a woman is killed in the room next door, Sammy’s hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t have a motive . . . including her own mom.

Children's Literature

In the sixth book in the "Sammy Keyes Mystery Series," thirteen-year-old Sammy and her friend Marissa hop a Greyhound to Hollywood and begin a search for Sammy's mother who recently moved there to become a star. When the two sleuths find her, they learn that she has changed her name to Dominique Windsor, shaved ten years off her age and transformed herself into a glamorous creature barely recognizable to her daughter. She is living in something akin to a sorority house for movie-star wannabes, run by a domineering man named Max. When a housemate, a rival aspiring actress, is murdered, Sammy's mother becomes the suspect. It is up to Sammy to untangle this web of increasingly disturbing and seedy events. Could her mother be the murderer or the next victim? Sammy, who has the hardened, smart voice of a young girl who has seen more than her share of emotional turmoil, deals with plenty of disturbing themes in the course of this fast-paced read. Abandonment is one theme, of a girl who deserves far better than her mother seems able to give her. Not your average mystery series heroine, Sammy Keyes gives us something to chew on, and something to be thankful for¾substance. 2001, Borzoi Books/Alfred A. Knopf, . Ages 9 to 12. Reviewer: Karen Deans