What do you do when you fall for your best friend's girl? Your best friend who just happens to be an international film star and a girl who just happens to be a drug-crazed supermodel? Can an introverted London author really handle the heat of L.A. and all its wicked ways? Find out in A SoCal Story.Ben Coulter's fourth novel sees him climb out from the grungy pool of the urban crime thriller and aspire to the lofty heights of contemporary literary fiction, while continuing to employ the same grit, addictive mystery and relentless tension he has become known for. Tony Lowe is an internationally published author, achieving the aspiration of so many. But Tony isn't one of the many, Tony is one of the few. The 1 in 4 few who suffer the torment of a noxious mind. His collapsing mental health will not allow him to appreciate his literary achievement and his self-doubt threatens to turn to self-sabotage.When he receives a call from his university room-mate, Marley George, asking him to come to L.A. to adapt his novel to film, he doesn't hesitate in saying yes. Marley is now a fully fledged Hollywood heart-throb, garnering international fame and vast wealth. Soothed by warm winter sunshine and laid-back Malibu living, Tony settles into the L.A. lifestyle, calming his dependency on prescription drugs and limiting time spent with poisonous memories. He feels his frosty mental health begin to thaw in the warm SoCal sun.But he soon finds himself swapping one addiction for another as he spends more time with Abi Hart, Marley's supermodel partner. The celebrity couple's relationship is on the rocks and Tony falls for her New York charms like a struggling actress for the Hollywood casting couch. She welcomes him into her world without limitation. A world of A-list celebrity and class A narcotics. He quickly discovers that the reality of life in LaLa Land is profoundly different from the one portrayed on the silver screen. Racked with feelings of guilt for betraying his friend, and an immoral fear of losing his movie deal, he struggles to resist Abi and all the libertine lust she dispenses.Southern California is the land where fantasy can come true, but just as soon be slung onto Skid Row, discarded, broken and bruised with a hundred dollar a day habit. Will Tony live the dream, or suffer the nightmare? One thing is sure, just because it sparkles, doesn't mean it shines.
