A hapless dad bumbles into trouble, dragging friends and relations with him.
Zack Walker (Bad Move, 2004) has moved his family back to the city, taken a job at The Metropolitan, the daily where his wife is his editor, and begun accompanying a shamus named Lawrence on stakeouts to write a feature on the life of a private eye. Despite his wife’s misgivings, Zack, tired of ferrying their teenager Angie around, decides they need to be a two-car family. Big mistake. The car he buys at an auction of confiscated cars belonged to drug impresario Lenny Indigo, and Barbie Bullock, his second-in-command, wants it back. On the home front, Angie’s being stalked by lovelorn nerd Trevor, who electronically bugs her every move. Even as Zack imprudently decides to stalk Trevor, he’s being stalked himself by a gargantuan SUV driven by some hyper-muscled goons. Lawrence winds up in the hospital nearly dead. A Metro photographer is murdered. Angie is kidnapped. And Trevor just keeps on stalking her. What’s a poor dad to do? Naturally, Zack asks the wrong guy for help, causing even more mayhem, which is resolved only when a souvenir of his stalking escapade, a recapped bottle of Snapple, manages to save the day.
Bright and funny, with a wry handling of the overprotective father and great panache in shaking up all the seemingly innocuous pieces and tying them together.
