Joan Collins is a supstar - and the author of a best selling autobiography, Past Imperfect.

Her novel, Prime Time, is the story of a talented, beautiful and romantic woman whose marriage is breaking up as her career takes her to the hights of stardom . . .
As Prime Time begins, five actresses are vying for the coveted part of Miranda Hamilton - the scheming, sexy, glamorous temptress in "Saga," the hottest series ever to hit the TV screen, the role of a lifetime, a role to kill for. . .

The first is Emerald Barrymore, legendary superstar, world-famous beauty, Hollywood's darling since childhood, desperate now to revive her flagging career, searching for something to halt her slide into drugs and alcohol . . .

Second is Rosalinde Lamaze, sultry Latin star of countless B movies, who wants to shake off her image as a sex goddess and be taken seriously as an actress . . .

Third is Sissy Sharp, Academy Award-winner, at the top of Hollywood's "A list," whose storybook marriage to the distiguished actor Sam Sharp, slated to play the male lead in "Saga," is widely suspected to be a sham. Sissy will stop at nothing to win the part of Miranda . . .

Fourth is Sabrina Jones, young, blond, gorgeous, who has everything she wants - including the man every woman desires - except this part . . .

Last - but not least - is Chloe Carriere, an outsider, a cabaret singer from England, married to a fading singer . . .

Nobody rates Chloe's chances of being chosen for Miranda highly - least of all she herself. She is facing the toughest competition Hollywood can offer, at a time when her marriage to the only man she has ever loved is on the rocks.

But Chloe is a fighter, a woman of true spirit, determined to do everything she can gto save her marriage - and become Miranda.

The lives and loves of these five women - friends and foes - are played out against the glittering world of money, sex, power and glamour that is television - and Hollywood - today.

Its fatal allure drives them. It has the power to give them success beyond their wildest dreams, but it also has the power to destroy them . . .

Only one will become a superstar, attracting the envy and adoration of every woman - and many men - her past illuminated by the merciless glare of fame, her happiness at risk, her very life at stake - as one man, with madness and violence in his heart, watches from the shadows, determined that the woman who inhabits his tormented fantasies will become Miranda. . .

Joan Collins has written the ultimate Hollywood novel.