Rose's Last Summer — Margaret Millar

The quintessential Hollywood mystery novel -- clever, humorous, and thoroughly Hitchcockian -- a faded actress's death sows chaos among a quirky set of characters in the nervous hills of California.

Rose's best days are behind her. No longer does she star on the silver screen, and her drinking and money troubles have eroded her wealth and societal status. Rose has no friends in the world except for a nosy landlord and her psychologist; her life is all but over. But authorities are still suspicious when she turns up dead in the garden of a wealthy doll manufacturer. Despite the coroner's finding of a natural death, a series of inquiries made, first by her ex-husband, then her psychologist, and eventually stir up enough doubts for the police to get involved. But involved in what?