Smash cut

Sandra Brown's Smash But opens with a bang when businessman Paul WHeeler is shot dead in a hotel elevator. With him was Julie Rutledge identified by the press as his much younger lover. But Julie cares little about the tabloids. She's convinced Paul's nephew, who stands to inherit his fortune, is the masked killer, based in part on his obsession with films from the thriller genre and soon, so are the police. Julie's attempt to warn attorney Derek Mitchell that his client is dangerous goes unheeded until several bizarre incidents have him thinking: Could it be that Creighton doesn't just watch murder movies, he reenacts them? If that's the case, he and Julie could be costarring in a reality film that spells the end for them.