Murder at the Academy Awards by Jerrilyn Farmer, Joan Rivers (2009, Hardcover)

Joan Rivers (yes, THE Joan Rivers) and Jerrilyn Farmer team up to score big laughs along with a perplexing plot and surprise ending in this hilarious Hollywood whodunit that contains not just one but TWO eBay references:

First, our heroine (A roman à clef Joan named Maxine Taylor) consoles herself that if she does get puked on by a clearly out of it (and, as it turns out, dying) starlet, she can at least sell the pictures "for a fortune" on eBay; and later, her daughter (a roman-à-clef Melissa Rivers named Drew) laments that they can't exactly sell the purloined diamonds cut from the Victoria's Secret special promotional bra on eBay.

If that sounds to you like the makings of a truly screwball plot, you would be absolutely right. But the storyline is all too true to the actual workings of real-life Hollywood, which of course makes it even funnier.

The book opens with Maxine Taylor and her daughter Drew putting the stars through their traditional Oscar Night fashion gauntlet. Mixing real and fictional stars with abandon, Max laments of Cameron Diaz's ensemble, "Even Winona Ryder wouldn't shoplift that dress."

"While the talent of the stars is luminous, fascinating, unquestionable," explains Max, "their fashion statements may not be. Someone, after all must play the role of Hollywood court jester, and that would be me."

Jerrilyn Farmer has her own winning series — the madcap Madelyn Bean mysteries — and she and Rivers (who clearly wrote her own zingers) make a formidable writing team. The plot revolves around the red-carpet collapse and eventual death of Hollywood "it" girl Halsey Hamilton, a hot young Oscar-nominated starlet and papparazzi magnet (think Lindsay Lohan).

Max is thrilled when Halsey's longtime friendship with Drew lands them an exclusive Oscar-night interview, but she is less than thrilled when the fresh-out-of-rehab Halsey stumbles up to the microphone wearing only a hot pink thong, slurs a few cryptic words, and crumples at the hem of Max's fabulous Michael Kors gown.

It's the ultimate celebrity train wreck — and having been present at Halsey's demise, Max and Drew feel compelled to find out whodunit. After all, Max alone heard Hailey's final whisper. To the rest of Hollywood, Halsey's death by overdose seems inevitable. To Max, it looks like the perfect crime.

The trail of clues leads her to Wonders, the rehabilitation clinic from which Halsey had recently graduated. With no habit more sinister than her weakness for artifical sweeteners, Max goes undercover and embarks on a 12-step investigation into murder. Once inside the clinic, as the jacket copy promises, "Max's list of suspects expands faster than the Jolie-Pitt family."

By now I hope I've persuaded you: Read this book. You will laugh, you'll be baffled, you'll be entirely satisfied by a righteous ending. "Murder At The Academy Awards" is one cozy mystery that should earn its own celebrity status.

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