Wollie Shelley smells a wrongful death.  She may be a greeting card artist in L.A., moonlighting as a dating correspondent for a talk show, but when her friend and former boyfriend, David, a television producer, dies, she knows something is fatally amiss. 

David was terminally ill.  So why did he die by gunshot? Was his death a suicide? Assisted suicide? Or something else?   A prime suspect is Wollie’s best friend, Joey, a minor celebrity, who also dated David.

Motivated by love and a concern for justice, Wollie relies on her brain and the help of friends to solve the question, says Dead Ex author Harley Jane Kozak. “She has a fish-out-of-water sensibility, a complete lack of qualifications for solving crimes.”

Kozak, a Hollywood insider herself, is fascinated by how the world of celebrities and show business interacts with the criminal justice arena.  How does publicity influence the process? 

She has some insight on that.  As a rising star, she performed in many feature films including When Harry Met Sally and Parenthood, as well as soap operas such as The Guiding Light. 

Her transition from stage to pen evolved as part of her dramatic training. “I’m a compulsive writer. I used to write long, character biographies and essays when preparing for roles in plays. I’d write twenty-page letters to friends,” she says. “I guess I was a writer waiting to happen.”

Harley Jane Kozak started acting at the age of five.  After graduating from the New York University School of the Arts, she landed roles in feature films, soap operas and prime time television programs.  She turned to novel writing in her mid-30's.  Dead Ex is her third Wollie Shelley novel.  She lives in California and is currently working on more novels in this series. Read an excerpt of Dead Ex here.