"Yuck. Why do people eat this?"

"An acquired taste."

"How’s it acquired?"

"By having lots of money and wanting everybody to know it."

So goes an exchange over caviar in the new paperback edition of Janice Kaplan’s deft and juicy detective novel, A Job to Kill For. This is part of Kaplan’s Lacy Fields mystery series. The heroine is young and chic – Jessica Fletcher in Manolos.

Kaplan is also the editor of Parade magazine, the cover on which every big star in the world wants to be. Forget People magazine, Parade is the place to push your movie, book, whatever!

As for caviar, I have acquired that taste, though I don’t have a lot of money.

***

Let’s talk a minute more about books. I’ve written here about the two books published from the work of Swedish author Stieg Larsson. He died of a heart attack just after the first of his trilogy was published. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is considered one of 2008’s "breakout novels" and it appears now as No. 11 on the paperback list.



This book is about an amoral hacker who becomes involved with a discredited journalist and together they solve a horrible crime. I have already said that the novel is a bit hard to get into because you have to plow through difficult details of a libel suit in the early pages to get to the meat of the plot. (Also, all the Swedish names take some getting used to!)

The ill-fated author Mr. Larsson has his No. 2, The Girl Who Played With Fire, coming in hard cover on July 28. This is a dynamite thriller but you really need to read No. 1 first to enjoy it.

Sonny Mehta of Knopf is the astute publisher behind the Larsson novels and he says there is still a third book to come. Well, that’s good news.

***

While I am recommending books, I have had to depart entirely from my love of biography and history and fast-paced detective-type thrillers (as described above) and stop and sit down to read what can only be described as a r-e-a-l-l-y big novel.

Abraham Verghese is a genius writer in this, his first fiction, titled Cutting for Stone. Set in Ethiopia, I can only say it is peopled with characters you’ll never forget … the kind of delicate writing you seldom encounter … and offering side trips on medicine and surgery that will horrify and enthrall you. Don’t make me try to explain this book from Random House; but do yourself a favor and buy it and read it and lend it and make yourself very popular.

***

Hope Davis, so great in Broadway’s "God of Carnage" and so brilliantly Emmy-worthy opposite Gabriel Byrne as one of his "In Treatment" patients, has been cast to star as Hillary Clinton in HBO’s "The Special Relationship." She takes over from Julianne Moore, who bowed out over a scheduling conflict. Dennis Quaid will star as President Clinton and Michael Sheen appears as Britain’s former PM Tony Blair, a role he perfected in "The Queen."


Hope Davis with the cast of "God of Carnage" © Getty Images

***

No! No! No! Elizabeth Taylor is not hospitalized in complete physical and mental breakdown over Michael Jackson. You might have read that elsewhere yesterday. She is in for standard tests and a minor "though painful" surgical procedure. That’s it. No drama, no shrieking, no sedation required. Nobody on her staff is worried. Period.

P.S. From the Dame herself: "I twittered in anticipation of what some of the cheaper rags would say about my going into the hospital at this time. I am fine and will be home soon."