About the Book
From bestselling author and former People magazine reporter Sara Hammel comes a twisty murder mystery packed with true celebrity stories and juicy blind items. Set at the fictional CelebLife magazine, FAMOUS LAST WORDS takes on the cutthroat business of celebrity journalism. Blending fact and fiction, the author—who spent some fourteen years covering celebrities for People before quitting with a blunt resignation letter that went viral—weaves dozens of real-life celebrity encounters into a story of murder, betrayal and shocking twists. It’s a novel about the ways we amuse ourselves in order to hide out from our own lives, and an unflinching portrait of a bankrupt world built on a fantasy that’s fraying at the edges.
*Can 107 celebrities solve one impossible murder case?*
One by one, intrepid reporter Augusta Noble meets the stars she hopes will fix all her problems, logging dozens of true celebrity encounters that reveal the good, the bad and the very, very ugly…
Augusta Noble and her best friend have suffered an unimaginable trauma—and because Augusta is the last one standing, she’s a suspect in the brutal crime. Suffering amnesia and struggling to remember key details, she begins to lose her grip on reality. She quits her newsmagazine job and sets out to meet 107 stars—the exact number of celebrity posters that lined her bedroom walls growing up. Landing a gig at the glamorous CelebLife magazine, Augusta meets and interviews such luminaries as Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Hemsworth and Chrissy Teigen, landing her share of scoops as she closes in on her goal. Inevitably, she discovers her idols are all too human—but they may still hold the key to unlocking her memories of the day that changed everything…
My Review
I have to say, the blurb of this book had me all kinds of intrigued. A blend of fact and fiction from a past celebrity magazine reporter and a murder plotline? I was in. There is definitely a lot happening in Famous Last Words, but I enjoyed the snappy writing and the twists really kept me on my toes. I will say I was actually more invested in the murder storyline and how it affected Augusta and her best friend, and was pretty riveted when the whole story came out near the end. That was incredibly chilling. The celebrity bits were fun to read about and a few had me thinking, hmm … I wonder who THAT could be. The two seemingly separate plot points had an interesting blend to them, and I overall I quite enjoyed the story.
4 stars
