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Summary
Summary
A Shane Scully Novel by the Bestselling Author of The Tin Collectors and The Viking Funeral
Emmy Award--winning writer-producer Stephen J. Cannell sets his next pulse-pounding thriller in the high-stakes world he knows best---Hollywood! In Hollywood Tough , organized crime attempts to take over the film craft unions.
Detective Shane Scully is back in the good graces of the department, hailed as a hero after bringing down a deadly gang of rogue cops in The Viking Funeral . At a glamorous Hollywood party with his new wife, Alexa, Shane overhears a famous producer make a suspicious remark about the strange deaths of his two ex-wives. Is he serious or merely joking around with his coterie of hangers-on? This becomes more than just police business, because the party is to celebrate the engagement of the producer to Alexa's closest friend.
Against his wife's wishes, Shane begins to look into this heavy-hitter's past. At the same time, he becomes aware of a high-profile wiseguy's attempt to control Hollywood's unions. He initiates an elaborate and expensive sting operation, actually setting up a phony production company to produce a bogus movie at LAPD expense. The plan is to draw the starstruck wiseguy into revealing his real purpose for coming to L.A. But before long the overbudgeted movie is rocketing into production. Tough, streetwise Scully, who thought he'd seen just about everything, is astounded by the distorted egos and total insanity of the movie business, and while he struggles to keep his sting operation from spinning wildly out of control, he and Alexa find themselves and Shane's teenaged son, Chooch, involved in something much bigger than they had ever imagined, something that puts all their lives on the line.
Author Notes
Stephen J. Cannell was born in Los Angeles, California on February 5, 1941. He was dyslexic and struggled through school. After graduating from the University of Oregon, he drove a truck for his father's home-decorating business and wrote TV scripts at night and on the weekends. His first writing successes were story ideas sold to Mission Impossible. Four years later, he sold a script for It Takes a Thief. In 1966 a script he submitted for Adam 12 so impressed the producers at Universal that they offered him the position of head writer. At Universal he wrote and helped create several TV shows including The Rockford Files, Baretta, and Baa Baa Black Sheep.
He started his own production company in 1979, generating The A-Team, Riptide, Hunter, and 21 Jump Street. Other credits include Wiseguy, Renegade, and Silk Stalkings. He has scripted over 1,500 TV episodes and created or co-created over 40 programs.
His first novel, The Plan, was published in 1995. During his lifetime, he wrote more than 15 novels including Final Victim, King Con, and the Shane Scully series. He died of complications associated with melanoma on September 30, 2010 at the age of 69.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In his eighth novel, the third featuring L.A. supercop Shane Scully, veteran television writer and producer Cannell (The Rockford Files) takes readers on an entertaining, beneath-the-tinsel tour of Hollywood. His complex plot, clearly presented by narrator Michael, cleverly melds a Mafia move to infest film craft unions, a gangsta turf war and an LAPD sting operation that amusingly unspools into a multi-million-dollar runaway film fiasco. The mix of suspense and showbiz satire works well, but the author's most sterling achievement is his cast of full-blown, quirky, raffish characters. Michael employs an impressive array of dead-on accents to distinguish them. Wiseguy "Champagne" Dennis Valentine, who, between shootouts, delivers lectures on vegan dining, speaks in throaty Brooklynese; likable grifter Nicky Marcella's nervous whine is strictly from Jersey; and Farrell Champion, an A-list producer (who may have murdered a wife or two), speaks with an edgy bluster. Michael subtly handles the voices of women, Hispanics, African-Americans, obnoxious agents and arrogant superstars. Strangely, his invention wanes when it comes to the hero's voice; he uses his normal actor's locution. While it is well-suited for storytelling purposes, it's a bit refined for a knockabout guy like Shane. Simultaneous release with the St. Martin's hardcover (Forecasts, Jan. 13). (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Cop turns movie mogul to foil the Mafia, in a dopey but likable thriller by the man who made his bones with The Rockford Files. LAPD Sergeant Shane Scully, newly married and happy as a clam at the start of his third adventure (The Viking Funeral, 2002, etc.), should have taken just one look at Nicky Marcella and rousted him again. But that's hindsight. Truth is, Scully has an almost collegial affection for the little crook-never really hard-core, mostly small-change scams and cons-and, besides, as Nicky's quick to inform him, he's "found Jesus" and been redeemed. In addition, he's found showbiz: a flourishing career as a Hollywood producer, he says, flashing the pertinent business card: "Cine-Roma, Nicholas Marcella, C.E.O." Scully is skeptical, of course, but, tickled as always by Nicky, agrees to do him a favor. A young actress named Carol White has become hard to locate, which is too bad, since Nicky has the perfect role for her in a new film he's casting. Could Scully just run her through the LAPD's computers? Such a small thing, the work of an hour maybe, Scully couldn't possibly know what complexities were to be born therefrom-that it would plunge him smack into the middle of a violent and bloody gang war, bring him into confrontation with a vicious and vengeful Mafia don, and partner him with Nicky in a multimillion-dollar deal so authentically hot that "half the [blanking] town wants a piece." Before he's out from under, though, Scully has ample opportunity to prove how "Hollywood tough" he is. As for Nicky-well, it just may be a star is born. Once again, veteran writer/TV producer Cannell has concocted his special brand of reader candy. If you believe a word of it, there's this bridge you might be interested in. Author tour
Booklist Review
LAPD investigator Shane Scully agrees to return a favor to former snitch Nicky Marcella, a street hustler turned shady movie producer. He wants Shane to find Carol White, his former New Jersey high school classmate and an aspiring actress. What Shane finds is that she's abandoned her dreams for an abyss of drugs and prostitution, but her core of inherent decency touches him. When she's murdered, he refuses to allow her to be dismissed as just another dead whore. He starts with Nicky, who's fronting a Mob-connected movie production company that is using muscle to infiltrate key labor unions. Evidently Carol's past collided with the Mob's plans, and she became expendable. Shane and Nicky--both guilt-ridden over their unwitting roles in her death--form an uneasy alliance to find Carol's killer. Cannell, Emmy-winning creator of shows such as The Rockford Files, applies his insider knowledge of Hollywood business to great effect, much as Elmore Leonard did in Get Shorty (1990). This is an entertaining mix of thrills, humor, and street justice as Shane and Nicky--reminiscent of Jim Rockford and his weasel sidekick, Angel--use their wits to run a complicated sting and bring the bad guys to their knees. --Wes Lukowsky
Library Journal Review
Shane Scully is one of the Los Angeles Police Department's sharpest officers. He finds himself, together with his police officer wife, Alexa, mingling with the Hollywood crowd in this latest installment in Cannell's series. Dead hookers, devious producers, drug-soaked parties, and L.A. street gangs all play major roles in this somewhat overplotted but always briskly moving novel. In order to find the killer of a small-time actress-turned-call girl, Shane enlists the aid of Nicky Marcella, a wannabe player in the industry (and the most interesting character in the book), to get him in the door of the movie-making business. At the same time, Shane has personal problems at home when his adopted son, a former gang member, seems to be getting back into the group just before a vicious gang war is about to erupt. Cannell does a good job picking up Mickey Spillane's staccato dialog, colorful backgrounds, and gritty characters. He is a skilled writer who blends the seamier side of Los Angeles into a complex, multifaceted tale, and it takes all of the talents of reader Paul Michael to juggle the plots and the characters successfully. Recommended for all libraries.-Joseph L. Carlson, Allan Hancock Coll., Lompoc, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.