Dreama Black is a 28 year-old, third-generation groupie, trying to figure out who she is after being publicly dumped by the rock god whose mega-hit "Dreama, Little Dreama" made the name and the girl world-famous. Dreama now supports herself by running custom-designed, themed tours of her hometown of L.A., with too much advice and too little help from her perennially sexy grandmother (from whom Stevie Nicks stole her signature witchy look) and her hot mess of a mother (best known for writhing orgasmically on a Porsche in an iconic MTV video from the '80s). In DREAM A LITTLE DEATH, Dreama maps out a killer tour of L.A.'s secret film noir locations for a Raymond Chandler-obsessed rap producer only to find herself in the middle of a suicide that may have been a murder, a $40,000 pay-off that keeps appearing and disappearing, and an unforgettable pair of femmes fatales who may or may not be the same person. The clock is ticking as Dreama races down the jasmine-scented alleys and rain-slicked asphalt of Southern California, trying to keep the body count to a minimum, and desperate to save the only father she's ever known, an L.A.P.D. detective who will lose not only his name, but his life, if Dream can't make murder her business.
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR
"For those readers who prefer their mysteries to be screwball rather than hard-boiled, here's a suggestion... Susan Kandel"
"...[her] pace is fast, [her] dialogue witty, and [her] characters somewhat outrageous..."
—Library Journal
"Kandel... straddles, rather elegantly, the genres of chick-lit beach read and smart mystery"
—L.A. Weekly