LAST SCENE ALIVE

If there’s anything more entertaining than a string of serial murders, it’s a network miniseries based on a string of serial murders. So when Robin Crusoe’s true-crime bestseller Whimsical Murders gets optioned for TV, the citizens of Lawrenceton, Georgia, are happier than Junebugs, especially when they learn that the exteriors will all be filmed right in their hometown. Librarian Aurora (Roe) Teagarden (A Fool and His Honey, 1999, etc.) is the one holdout; her key role in solving the grisly murders, along with her recent widowhood, leaves her with scant appetite for a fictional replay. But her longstanding friendship with Robin persuades her to visit the set, where she’s invited to dinner with his ex-lover, Celia Shaw, the actress who plays the movie version of Roe. The dinner goes badly—all Celia wants is to study Roe and copy her mannerisms—and next day’s filming goes even worse, since before the first scene is shot, Roe’s stepson Barrett finds copycat Celia dead in her trailer. Detective Arthur Smith’s entrance causes Roe still more grief; besides being overprotective, he’s obviously jealous of her blossoming romance with Robin. And a mysterious stalker attacks Roe outside the library, perhaps the last sane place left in Lawrenceton. Roe may be able to get Josh Finstermeyer to pay his overdue fines, but will she stop a killer before she checks out herself?

A standard two-suitor with some pleasant local color but a thin plot.