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LA Observed contributor Denise Hamilton's newest mystery has its official launch on Tuesday. I noticed today she's at Skylight Books for a reading Tuesday night before heading out on the road. In "Damage Control," Hamilton steps away from her L.A. Times reporter character, Eve Diamond, and introduces Maggie Weinstock Silver, who grew up in the Valley (as Hamilton did) and becomes a crisis PR consultant in L.A., passing through the real Sitrick & Company before landing at a scary — and fictional — company that knows no ethical bounds. Silver lives in the Cypress Park neighborhood on the Eastside, pops Adderall all day, relives teenage encounters on the beach at Playa del Rey, and has a couple of scenes in the fenced-off ghost neighborhood where the homes were torn out beachward from LAX.
First line:
In my dreams, Anabelle Paxton and I are still friends and that summer night in Playa never happened.
Former Sitrick executive Alan Mayer, now at 42 West, gets thanks in the acknowledgments: "[He] regaled me with stories and lunch." Also: Hamilton talks to Carolyn Kellogg at Jacket Copy.