Fleur De Leigh's Life of Crime: A Novel - Softcover

Brenda Gunter Houston Chronicle Leslie's breezy tone turns what could have been a bitter, morose tell-all into a wickedly funny, readable kiss-and-tell. Robin Vidimos Denver Post An enchanting, believable, and wickedly funny tale....The tales are related with such sparkling writing and told with such verve that it is impossible not to enjoy them. Mark Johnson San Jose Mercury News Witty, sweet, curiously moving...rare, lovely, and slightly outrageous. The Wall Street Journal If you've ever dreamed of living a Hollywood life, you won't anymore after reading this breezy first novel. Sunil Iyengar San Francisco Chronicle Anyone who has ever been a child has something to complain about; celebrity is no criterion. But Leslie's sprightly prose precludes dwelling on her heroine's dissatisfaction. Rather, by summoning the same resourcefulness she attributes to Fleur, Leslie prescribes an age-old remedy: Have a laugh and move on. Wendy Law-Yone The Washington Post It's a rare voice that succeeds in bringing to life the bitter comedy of childhood under siege from unreliable adults -- and succeeds without the victim's whine. In Fleur de Leigh, Diane Leslie has created that voice: wry, ironic, still trusting, still touchingly tolerant. It's an even rarer voice that can bring to life a period as dated and overdone as Hollywood in the '50s. This, too, the author pulls off....It's all there, bright and crisp, like a lovingly restored cut from a grainy old classic. Deirdre Donahue USA Today Enchanting...A delectable margarita, mixing the salt of tears, the bite of truth, and the sunny intoxication of southern California. Mark Rozzo Los Angeles Times Book Review Leslie reveals a world that's as shiny and as frozen as a game-show host's smile and a little girl who navigates it with heartening savvy. Nina Sonenberg The New York Times Book Review A delicious and disturbing glimpse behind the high stucco walls of Hollywood circa 1957...Leslie -- who clearly knows the Hollywood she lampoons -- balances the sincerity of Fleur's narration with the superficiality of her surroundings, eliciting shivers of compassion. Megan Harlan Entertainment Weekly A sparkling, cunningly observant account of growing up rich and neglected in 1950s Hollywood...tres charmant indeed.

The young Fleur de Leigh has had a privileged background surrounded by the glamour and excitement of Hollywood life. But as she faces adolescence, this independent-minded, savvy girl struggles to find meaning in a world that thrives on artificiality. Wedged between a self-involved, couch-hopping faded B-movie star of a mother and an emotionally aloof father, Fleur must navigate her way out of this world of artifice to track down what really matters. On her quest, she encounters a revolving door of nannies, maids, cooks and character actors. But it is the friendship that develops between her and the gardener Constantine who is burly, worldly and sexually robust, that ultimately steers her away from her parents' superficial lifestyle and towards the pleasures of the natural world. Seen through Fleur's wide-open eyes, and told in her sharp knowing voice, FLEUR DE LEIGH'S LIFE OF CRIME is an on-target depiction of the madcap Hollywood movie colony of the late 1950's.