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When most of us think about Hollywood, we think of glitz and glamour and red carpet events filled with the biggest and best-looking movie stars. But in his debut thriller, Hollywood Hustle, actor-turned-author Jon Lindstrom offers a look at the darker side of Hollywood.
The story finds aging film star Winston Greene in a real-life situation that seems to have come right out of one of his movies. He wakes one morning to find his six-year-old granddaughter, Amy, in his bedroom. She leads him to a strange man who explains that Win’s daughter has been kidnapped—and the kidnappers expect him to give them all of his “movie money” to get her back. The problem is that there is no more movie money—so Win calls in his two closest friends to help him try to get her back.
As long as his daughter is in the hands of the kidnappers, Win knows that he can’t stop to catch his breath—because the longer the process takes, the greater the chances that something horrible will happen. Win is a complicated character who’s made a whole lot of mistakes in the past—and he’s let a lot of people down—but he’s determined to come through this time. With help from a successful Hollywood stuntman and a disgraced LAPD cop, he scrambles to keep his daughter alive and bring her home safely. And the story races along with him as he tries everything he can to find enough money to satisfy the kidnappers’ demands.
But this story isn’t just about Win. It also follows the trio of kidnappers, who aren’t the professional criminals that they make themselves out to be. Instead, they’re outcasts and failed child actors who make a meager living selling drugs at a dingy bowling alley and are desperate for a big payday. But while they may have thought they had the whole plan figured out—that they’d soon be starting new lives on the beach in Mexico—nothing goes according to their plan. And as this likable hero faces off against a band of bumbling bad guys, it all plays out like an action movie that you’d see in your favorite theater on a Friday night.
This fast-paced thriller about the perfect crime gone horribly wrong captures the seedier side of Hollywood while racing through its upscale neighborhoods. It may not be an entirely distinctive read, but it’s an entertaining debut novel from someone who knows a thing or two about Hollywood.
Listen to the review on Shelf Discovery:
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