The End of Miss Kind — Donald Rawley

When a quiet young woman is murdered with awful precision in her quiet, anonymous Hollywood apartment, it comes as no surprise that within a matter of hours her relatives are contacted, a film deal is struck and a screenplay commissioned. For sensitive journeyman writer Samuel Johnson, it is the chance to finally make a mark, to work with successful producer Sol Seagull and contribute, in a small way, to the Hollywood dream.

But in taking the job, Samuel finds himself reluctantly drawn into a twilight world where all the cliches ring true: where vulgar B-move stars spend their afternoon in a haze of tequila... and where the only person who seems to have cared about a plain, overweight office worker is her murderer.

The End of Miss Kind is a lovely, lyrical, noirish Hollywood murder mystery, the best - and last - work from the acclaimed author of Slow Dance on the Fault Line.

"Brutally gorgeous, triumphantly lyrical, and unmistakably brilliant. Donald Rawley makes myth of our contemporary lives."
--Kate Braverman

"Rawley's writing blazes unapologetically fecund and startling, like some kind of bird of paradise from Mars. It is a literary movement in itself."
--Sandra Tsing Loh

"Donald Rawley is the literary equivalent of amyl nitrate. Reading this searing talent may give you a heart attack, but you'll die with a twisted, sated smile of gratitude on your lips."
--Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight