The unexpected salami

by Laurie Gwen Shapiro

An aging band on the verge, the Tall Poppies were still looking for their big break in the crapshoot known as the music business. So when their drummer was gunned down right in the middle of the video - and the murder caught on camera - they weren't too unhappy about seeing themselves on TV screens all around the world. Our heroine, Rachel Ganelli, self-confessed band moll (and witness to the shooting), had headed for Australia to escape a pending marriage, a mundane job, and her endlessly meddling parents. But finding herself on the perimeter of the murder, she heeds her mother's advice, just this once, and returns to New York, where life is more predictable. Or so she expects. Before she even has time to take a deep breath of city air, Rachel's sense of what really happened back in Australia spins wildly out of control - and Rachel's life right along with it.