Hollywood Hustle by Jon Lindstrom

Winston Greene is a weather worn action movie hero whose star is fading. Only gigs he can get now are B-grade Asian action flicks. And not many of them. Picture, maybe, Nick Nolte. 

Winston is a widower and a cancer survivor. Claire is his addict of a daughter who is married to Zeke, a bigger addict, and a lovely granddaughter. Nothing he'd like better than to get his daugher/granddaughter to drop that loser husband/father and move back in with him.  But the lovely couple has debts they are trying to run away from and the holder of the debts (Rocket) wants to be paid.

Rocket is a low level dealer who operates out of a bowling alley bar. He has two subordinates, Jordy (a large surfer) and Ozzie (a small mouthy hispanic). They work out a foolproof plan: kidnap the daughter and ransom her to Winston for 'all his money' (of course him being a famous, and rich, movie star, he's got to have a ton socked away). Once the kidnap happens and the ransom demand phoned in, Winston convinces a friend, Teddy (former New Orleans detective now LA PI)  plus Grover, his best friend, who is an in-demand stunt man. But no police. Given Greene's former notoriety, it's only a matter of time before some cop calls in a tip to a Hollywood tabloid. 

The book follows two primary plotlines. First, the idiots who dreamed up this scheme and what they try to do to minimize the fallout rapidly heading their way. Second, is the Winston's team tracing leads in an attempt to find Claire. It's imperative they find Claire because they don't know what the kidnappers will do when they learn that Winston is damn near broke. Actors apparently have little or no health insurance so Winston paid for his cancer treatments out of pocket, leaving him with only two tangible assets: his home (whose crumbling foundation means he could only sell it for pennies on the dollar) and a customized hot rod. 

Lindstrom has a 20+ year career working in Hollywood having acting, producing, directing, and writing credits on his IMDB.com page. By coincidence, while reading this, a commercial came on with Lindstom as the subject. He had a long-running role in General Hospital (491 episodes) and a few other standalone books. My partner in crime here at MRB would've called this 'An airport read' meaning a fund read that will distract you from the drudgery of travel. I'd read another.  

Exit Strategy by Lee Child and Andrew Child

The wanderings of Jack Reacher make its 30th stop, this time in Baltimore, MD. Reacher is sitting in his usual haunt - a coffee shop - and scoping out the customers. Only thing kinda unusual is a 4-top with two couples, one elderly.  As he exits the shop, a customer coming in brushes up against Reacher (who then checks his pockets to make sure his passport and some cash are intact). They are. On the street is a 2nd hand store he stops in to buy a warmer coat giving the upcoming change in seasons. While transferring his meager existence to the new coat, he notices a note has been inserted into a pocket. A desperate plea for help. Could only have come from that brushpass at the door.  

But first, that older couple. Reacher recognized the shakedown as soon as he saw it. Con artists trying to scam the elderly for all their savings. He tells the couple they been taken and to sit tight while he confronts the scammers, gently tells them of the err of their ways, and returns the money to the couple (standard opening scene for most Reacher books is for him to help out someone getting scammed). 

What Reacher wants to do is find out who's behind the scam. What takes over, however, is the note he received. The note asks him to return the cash or the the man delivering the note will be killed. Obviously the note was given to him in error. This guy was told to deliver the note to the biggest guy in the coffee shop. Yeah, that was Reacher. But it was still the wrong guy. Another (bigger) guy was on the way to the shop when he was killed in a freak accident (we are led to believe) a block or two away.

Now it gets complicated and heavily layered involving a Blackwater-ish paramilitary contractor, fraudulent contracts, any number of thugs that unfortunately get in Reacher's way, Armenian separatists, CIA operatives, tunnels and caves used to train military dropouts, lots of coffee, and little sleep. 

This was a first for me . . . a Reacher story that didn't grab or hold my interest. I finished, but the further I got into the book, the more outrageous the plotline became. Upon closing the book, I breathed a sigh of relief. Done. A friend of mine saw I was reading the book to which he said, 'First Reacher book I ever quit reading.' I stuck with it, but if this was my first Reacher book, I doubt I'd be looking forward to reading another. As Amazon Prime continues to produce in the Reacher series (season 4 starts back up the end of March or April), think I'm safe in saying that this story is unlikely to be greenlit. 

ECD 

Force of Nature

Force of Nature is the 12th book in the series by C. J. Box about his protagonist Joe Pickett, a Wyoming game warden. I did not remember this story which I previously reviewed in 2012, and I totally enjoyed this important part of the Joe Pickett saga. 

 

In this story, the main player was the infamous Nate Romanowski. Nate had been off the grid for an extended period of time following the murder of the woman he loved. Nate was a skilled falconist which Box explains in clear language, and he had been trained in that art by John Nemecek who had originally recruited him into a secret and exclusive special ops team. Nate had gone around the world doing unspeakable cruel acts on behalf of Nemecek who he thought was being directed by someone much higher in the military/covert hierarchy. 

 

But now, Nemecek had gone rogue, and as the result of past actions, found it necessary to eliminate Nate This story was about Nemecek and Joe trying to locate each other, and of course, Joe Pickett got involved. On the one hand Joe was tested because his lethal skills were not in the same level as the other two main characters, and his long friendship with Nate (as described in earlier books) put him in a precarious role with his fellow law enforcement officers. Nemecek had no limits on the mayhem he was will to inflict on those around him, and even Joe’s family was in danger.

 

This story reveals Box at his finest. Perhaps it is his masterpiece, but then again, I’ve felt that way after reading every book in this series. The conclusion is a page-turner, and I stayed up late and got up early to continue reading this story. You’ll be hooked on this story within the first couple pages. (While this could be a standalone book, it’s best to read these novels in the order in which they were published.)

 

Out of the Dark I Cry

I’ve already reviewed three books in this 10-book series about the protagonists episcopal priest Clare Fergusson and police chief Russ Van Alstyne, so this review is my forth novel in the series. I was introduced to these characters in the 10^th book, the one that is about to be released, At Midnight Comes the Cry. I liked that 10^th book enough to choose to dive in from the start, so I began reading them in the order of publication so I would get the character development that the author chose. Once again, I was hooked by the characters, the plots, and the writing itself by both books one and two. Please review my writings about the first books. The third book in the series is Out of the Deep I Cry.

These are not your typical murder mysteries. Russ is married to a woman the reader does not meet before this book, and it occurs when there is a brief encounter between Clare and Linda van Alstyne. They meet at the hospital where Russ is staying as the result of a series of injuries. It is clear that Linda has no idea of the relationship that has been building between her husband and Clare. By this time, the protagonists have expressed their love for one another, which is a challenge for these highly ethical people.

 

The plot itself was a bit complicated as it addressed the issue of childhood vaccines, bootlegging in upstate New York during Prohibition, the depression, marital fidelity, and “black diptheria” that was a very real problem in the 1930’s but which has been eradicated by the use of childhood vaccinations. In this story, there was a man missing from the 1930’s, but until the end of the story, it was not known to the reader whether this was a matter of murder or a matter of a missing person, perhaps someone who had intentionally fled the town of Millers Kill.

 

For the most part, I was less enamored with this novel than the other three. It just seemed like the author had made things complicated enough that it took a long time and a lot of pages to bring it all together. Even the escape from an impossible situation which resulted in the heightened connection between Clare and Russ took too long to tell. Overall, it just seemed like “too much” characterized the story. I also found myself getting a bit tired of the references to Clare’s religious role in Millers Kill. But, my appetite for more of these characters has not been killed off. Rather, I will now acquire the fourth book, To Darkness and to Death. I’m eager to see the next murder that catches their attention and how they manage their attraction for each other.

 

Midnight Patriots

Paul Levine is a prolific author, and in Midnight Patriots he began with the reality of the friendship of Charlie Chaplin and Albert Einstein. This is the second book in the Einstein-Chaplin series. I previously favorably reviewed the first novel Midnight Burning.In Midnight Patriots,  Levine included nearly every famous person I could think of from the 1930’s and 40’s including President Roosevelt, gangster Mickey Cohen, singer Lena Horne, scientist Robert Oppenheimer, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, aviator Charles Lindbergh, various Nazi agents, newspaperman William Randolph Hearst, and many, many more were mentioned.

There was a light-hearted quality to the interactions between Chaplin and Einstein who were probably the most famous people in the world at the time. Both men were involved in various sexual escapades. Chaplin had just debuted his film, The Great Dictator, which ridiculed Hitler. The film was a smashing success in the U.S., and Levine made Chaplin the target of an assassination attempt Nazis because Hitler had been enraged by the content of the movie. Meanwhile Einstein was struggling with the idea of helping Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project develop the atom bomb. Einstein was a pacifist, but he was troubled both by the idea of developing the atom bomb, but also the forces that Hitler was putting into play. However, the idea of staying silent and allowing Hitler to develop the bomb was even more dangerous, so he agreed to help Oppenheimer with questions about theoretical physics, but he agonized over the loss of his pacifist values. At the same time Chaplin was the target of assassination by Nazis, Einstein was the target of Levine’s kidnapping scheme that would force Einstein to help the Nazis get the bomb first.

The chase Nazis and the two protagonists took place across the U.S. as many of these same celebrities traveled from the East Coast to the West Coast on the most luxurious of railroad accommodations. Levine did a great job putting all the famous personalities together while addressing the most troubling issues of the day, war versus isolation, nuclear energy, and racism. I loved the first book and this sequel was equally well done. 

Her Cold Justice