A Good, Hard Slap

In the Jazz Age a woman's best defense was "A Good, Hard Slap." And it worked . . . with the nice boys. But what if the boy wasn't nice? What if the man was a serial seducer with a predilection for underage girls? What if the Romeo was your boss?

Gracie Perkins and six other stenographers at Kaplan Talking Pictures know the film company's most popular star has been murdered, something the moviegoing public will never know. The studio will tell the district attorney what to believe, and the district attorney will tell the LAPD and the newspapers what to believe. That's the way it works. As the official story about the "unexpected" death comes out, the seven women don't know if the studio has any idea what really happened, they only know they have to protect one of their own. They have a plan. But plans have a way of unraveling.

It's a simple plan, and it seems to be working at first because Gracie can lie as believably as the studio's publicity department. She hasn't been honest about anything for a long time-she can't be if she wants to keep her pals in the steno pool. They're the only friends she has in this hard-luck life. She knows from experience that the truth can get you into a world of trouble. But Gracie's talent for deception doesn't fly with Detective Nick Zingarelli, who not only gets the real story out of the conflicted Miss Perkins, but eventually opens her eyes to the truth about love.

"A Good, Hard Slap" dives deep into the complicated relationships among the women of Kaplan Talking Pictures as they navigate the stormy seas of their hidden pasts and thwarted ambitions.