A rollicking retro Tinseltown thriller.
A striving 20-something record executive is accused of murder in Hart’s novel, set in 1990s Hollywood.
Franny Lane, 25, is the youngest female in senior management at the Los Angeles–based Sojourn Records, having pushed to sign the previously passed-over, now-hot band the Palominos to the label. At a group meeting with producer Don Bradford, who is seeking music for his next movie, Franny successfully pitches the Palominos—and piques his romantic interest. Raised by uncaring foster parents until the age of 12, when her honorable mention in a poetry contest got her whisked to a U.K. boarding school by a mysterious benefactor, Franny is emotionally guarded and initially resists Don, but then falls into a relationship with him. She also starts going to therapist Susan Pearlman, a practitioner to whom, initially unbeknownst to Franny, Don sends all of his girlfriends. This group includes Maggie Reilly, a talented actress and director just dumped by Don; Kiley Winters, Maggie’s erstwhile friend and lover whom Maggie decries as “a nobody, working odd waitressing jobs and aspiring to be a singer, actress—or even, apparently, a mistress” after Kiley sets out to snag Don; and Jennifer Day, the lead of Don’s film (titled Desperation Will Kill You). When the blackmailing Kiley is killed at Don’s house, Franny is framed for Kiley’s murder. Luckily, Franny’s benefactor has had a PI following her who can help prove her innocence—but not before a trial is held that includes Maggie and her former foster mother giving testimony.
Marketing executive Hart, the author of Blind Pony: As True A Story As I Can Tell (2021)—a memoir of her abusive childhood and varied career following landing in 1970s Los Angeles—here crafts a colorful Hollywood noir in which several characters put the maxim “Desperation Will Kill You” to the test just as a film with that name is being made (Don proclaims the movie is “slated to usher in the 90s”). As in Quentin Tarantino’s film Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, an over-the-top weapon first used in a movie gets wielded for other uses by a character in reality, in this case the “infamous dart gun from [Don’s previous film] Temptress of the Jungle.” There’s also plenty of Valley of the Dolls–like pill-popping, with Don’s besotted shrink illegally providing Don (and indirectly, his women) with prescription drugs to deal with the stresses of Hollywood life, culminating in a DEA/DOJ investigation. As in Susann’s camp-classic novel, Hart’s Hollywood women alternately compete with and support one other, with Maggie’s shifting behavior toward Franny careening back and forth in a head-spinning fashion near the conclusion of the novel. Villainous Don is given a troubling yet arguably era-appropriate psychology, with Hart sketching in a backstory of a “humiliating” incident in which young Don was ostracized for acting on his homosexual desire for his childhood best friend, leading to his vow “never to love anyone again for fear of experiencing this intense shame once more.” Ultimately, in its portrayal of Franny’s triumphant arc, the novel offers satisfying “girl power” fantasy and fulfillment.
Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.
What hasn’t legendary legal eagle Grisham tried yet? How about a thriller about serial kidnapping and international terrorism.
When Paul and Chelsea Tanner disappear during a day trip on their Paris honeymoon, their abductors demand a ransom of $2 million from Chelsea’s wealthy parents, and a few days later the same sum from Paul’s much less well-heeled parents. After orthopedist Lowell Clayburn, Chelsea’s father, ponies up the ransom without breathing a word to the authorities, his daughter is promptly released. But even though Paul’s parents sell their home, liquidate their assets, and borrow money from the Clayburns to meet the kidnappers’ demands, the villains hold on to Paul anyway. Asked whether he’s ever seen such an outcome in a double kidnapping, FBI deputy director Andrew Strong tells Lowell: “No, this is a new one.” But it’s not, as Strong knows all too well; it’s the third such active case, all involving honeymooning couples whose bridegrooms had served in the armed forces. After masterfully drawing readers in with his bare-knuckle account of the Tanners’ abduction and the attempt by their families and the CIA to tell the lies required to keep caring friends and the rapacious press at bay, Grisham effortlessly switches gears to follow CIA agent Rae Claire Russo and Stuart Nash, a former Department of Justice prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who agrees to marry her so they can serve as bait for the kidnappers, whose motives include justice and revenge as well as cold hard cash. So much for the imprisoned Paul’s wistful reflection that “hopefully, it was only about money.”
The story unfolds so irresistibly that newcomers may think Grisham’s been writing thrillers like this his whole life.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2026
ISBN: 9780385550543
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2026
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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