I finished "Gone" by Jonathan Kellerman today. At the start of this book a naive (and slightly dim-witted) pair of wannabe actors stage their own kidnapping to get attention from the world's media (and hopefully some roles). They do this because they are sick of waiting tables, having decamped to Hollywood from the plane states to act.

When, a month after the incident, the girl turns up dead and the guy disappears, Milo Sturgis is called in to solve the case (and goes to his favorite psychologist-cum-side-kick Alex Delaware for advice about their behavior). The two then work together to solve the case.

The book is a really easy read. It rattles along at a fair old pace. Kellerman really knows how to tell a story, but I got a little irritated by the way he portrays struggling actors. I don't expect them all to be Lawrence Olivier (or even a regular on General Hospital), but I got a little irritated with quite how shallowly they're portrayed. They're presented as "beautiful people" types with little (if any) curiosity about the world around them. I think he could have done better than the cardboard cut out style characterization he achieved for some of this secondary characters.