Pocket Books/Karen Hunter Publishing. 389 pp. $25.99

And she has teamed up with a mystery man, who is just as intent on Yancey's demise.

Unaware of her mother's plan for revenge, Yancey is on tour with a third-rate theater company - a gig that barely pays her rent and certainly does nothing for her ego. She dreams of making it back to the big time, but wonders how to go about it.

Then Yancey meets her own mystery man, S. Marcus Pinkston. He's rich, handsome, and offers Yancey the chance to get back into the national spotlight. But Ava will do anything to make sure that doesn't happen.

Mama Dearest is the latest book by New York Times best-selling author E. Lynn Harris, who died of heart disease in July at age 54. Harris, who first appeared on the literary scene in 1994, was best known for novels featuring bisexual black men who lived on the down-low - hiding their homosexual relationships while carrying on relationships with women. Harris fans will recognize both Ava and Yancey from previous novels.

One of Harris' trademarks was drama, and in this regard, Mama Dearest does not disappoint.

Yancey is a totally self-absorbed entertainer who is a "sneeze away from 40" and bitter that the 15 minutes of fame she experienced as a singer/actress almost a decade before is over.

When she meets Pinkston while out on the road with her stage company, she immediately falls in love with him after realizing just how rich and well-connected he is. For his part, Pinkston also appears smitten, and he tells her he wants to help revive her career. When he says he can introduce her to a television producer who might be interested in starring her in her own reality series, she jumps at the opportunity. The problem is that the producer wants to make sure there's enough drama to keep viewers interested, and Yancey's life is dull, her career is at a standstill, and she has no interesting friends.

Meanwhile, Ava - who was sent to prison for attempted murder - is released early for good behavior. However, she doesn't tell Yancey about her release and moves into her daughter's New York City townhouse while Yancey is still on the road. In Ava's mind, Yancey is responsible for her prison stint because she testified against her mother in court, and as soon as she's settled in, she sets about getting revenge. When Yancey returns to New York and finds her mother in her home, she's annoyed, but doesn't turn the woman out.

When Ava learns about the plans for the reality series, she immediately sets out to sabotage them. One evening while watching television, Yancey and Ava see teenage singing sensation Madison B. giving a performance, and as Yancey stares at the screen, she suddenly tells Ava that the girl might be the daughter who Yancey abandoned in her infancy. Ava immediately sees dollar signs and urges Yancey to get in touch with the girl, who has been raised by her father, Derrick, one of Yancey's ex-boyfriends.

When Yancey hesitates to contact Derrick, Ava decides to take matters into her own hands, willing to exploit both her daughter and her granddaughter to get what she wants.

There are plot twists, sex, drugs, and even a cameo appearance by three of Harris' most beloved characters, Nicole, Basil and Raymond. Still, Mama Dearest is lacking.

Harris admitted in interviews that he wasn't the best writer on the horizon, but said his strength was his storytelling abilities. His previous books were filled with drama, but were realistic; Mama Dearest is not. Ava comes off as one-dimensional, as does Lyrical, a female wannabe hip-hop artist Ava met in prison. Yancey comes off as unbelievably gullible, both in regard to her mother and her new love. Harris fans know from past books that both Ava and Yancey are not nice people, but at least they were always interesting. Not so here.

Both the writing and the story are, at times, inconsistent, and too many questions go unanswered. While enough of the Harris magic is evident to make Mama Dearest a decent read, this is not one of Harris' better books.