An Accidental Affair

February 27, 2012
Bestseller Dickey (Tempted by Trouble) sets a melodrama of infidelity among Hollywood’s glittering stars. James Thicke is a successful screenwriter with everything going for him when his wife, beautiful actress Regina Baptiste, is caught on video having sex with her leading man, Johnny Bergstein. As the video goes viral, Thicke lurches from feelings of bitter betrayal and yearning for vengeance to lingering love and responsibility for his wife. He makes a hasty incognito retreat to a seedy apartment complex, where he instantly and hilariously attracts the attention of a host of quirky and vivid characters as he tries to elude the paparazzi. Unfortunately, he doesn’t stay there, instead spiraling implausibly out of control. The love–hate relationship is for tabloid fans who are in it for the creative plot and Hollywood glitz and don’t care that the characters are flat and unlikable. Agent: Sara Camilli, Sara Camilli Agency.

March 1, 2012
What's a financially successful screenwriter to do when his movie-star wife stars in an extremely explicit sex video? Can he possible believe her claim that it was all an accident? Dickey's latest novel (Tempted by Trouble, 2010, etc.) drops the reader into a very hip world starring characters ready-made for the screen. Their finances are vast, their bodies perfect, their troubles worthy of coverage on TMZ. Gorgeous Regina Baptiste, James Thicke's wife, has struggled to be taken seriously as an actor. Yet she has surprisingly starred in an explicit video with Johnny Bergs, aka Johnny Handsome, an actor she previously claimed to despise. James first gauges the world's reaction via social-networking sites. He then attacks Bergs and flees to a seedier part of town while his driver, called Driver, packs up and delivers all of his furniture and electronic gadgets. Hiding out amid a curious assortment of characters, James immediately, repeatedly and with carefully described technical prowess, exacts sexual revenge upon his wife with virtual strangers. His new neighbors include Mr. Chetwyn Holder, who jealously loves his young girlfriend. Mrs. Patrice Evans, who uses exercise not only to keep her body in shape but also to fill the emotional void that is her marriage. Sweet Isabel, a lovely, slightly older woman, offers James conversation and more. Yet Regina still loves James, Bergs' family wants revenge and a mysterious number keeps showing up on James' caller ID. And then there's the mysterious and threatening return of Regina's ex-husband. Dickey has set up an ardent thriller in which James must discover why his wife was in the sex video. Did someone coerce or trick her? How? Could the affair actually have been accidental? The pace is fast, to be sure, yet James' own promiscuity makes his jealousy difficult to sympathize with. A mix of erotica and noir, this novel lacks emotional depth.

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March 1, 2012
Best-selling Dickey (Tempted by Trouble, 2010) continues his turn toward sexed-up, darker material in this cautionary tale for the Kardashian generation. The ripped-from-Access Hollywood plot features screenwriter James Thicke and actress Regina Baptiste, whose marriage blows up after a video surfaces of Regina and her latest costar engaged in an all-too-real love scene. His cuckoldry trumpeted in the media, James retreats to a shabby apartment complex, where he's like catnip for the female neighbors, and Dickey delights in scene after explicit scene of James getting his groove back. Like the star she is, Regina's not one to cede the stage for long and makes a grand reentrance into James' life. The couple then reunites to thwart a blackmail plot that results in an act of unexpected violence. Double-cross after double-cross ensues as James and Regina straddle the very fine line between love and hate. Is a happy ending possible for these two? Dickey leaves readers to draw their own conclusions, and many will undoubtedly reach the final page with a greater appreciation for their own paparazzi-free lives.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)