Author Mark Ribowsky couldn't have known it, but his timing was perfect. His new book The Supremes: A Saga of Motown Dreams, Success and Betrayal was published by Da Capo on July 1 -- a week after the shocking death of Michael Jackson.

Of course, Ribowsky's book focuses on, clockwise from bottom right, Diana Ross, Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard, following the members of the queens of the girl group from their origins as the Primettes in the Detroit projects to their dominance of the pop charts in the '60s -- they had more No. 1 hits in the era than anyone but Elvis and the Beatles -- and beyond.

Working from extensive interviews with their Motown contemporaries and others, Ribowsky traces the Supremes' public and personal lives, from Ballard's tragic early death to Ross' affairs with songwriter Brian Holland, singer Smokey Robinson and, most importantly, Motown mogul Berry Gordy, who shaped and drove her career. Between the dish, the book provides a detailed, musically astute account of how the Supremes' hits were made and marketed.

Ribowsky also writes about the legend that Ross "discovered" the Jackson 5 and jump-started Michael's stardom:

"Gordy cannily welded the nascent fortunes of the Jackson 5 to (Ross') stardom by trying to create a bogus narrative that she was not just the boys' guardian angel but their guardian, especially to 10-year-old Michael.... That Diana had never heard of them before they came to Motown was a detail soon to be expunged by a massive and meticulous PR campaign at the core of which was Diana Ross as much as the group itself."

In its sobering behind-the-scenes account of the legendary group, The Supremes suggests what young Michael might have unwittingly stepped into when he cast the glamorous but ruthless Ross as his role model.

In other MJ book news, Simon & Schuster announced today it would publish Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson by Ian Halperin on July 14, with a first printing of 500,000 copies.

Publicity photo, 1981 AP photo