Not the End of the World
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4.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Death threats rock a Hollywood film festival in a thriller that reads like “Day of the Locust updated and rewritten by Carl Hiaasen” (Kirkus Reviews).
After a family tragedy, LAPD cop Larry Freeman gets back to work with what he thinks is a simple assignment: Keep a rabid group of right-wing evangelical protestors as far as possible from a celluloid celebration of ex—and very X—adult film actors. But when a vessel is discovered off the West Coast with its crew vanished, Freeman finds himself caught in a far more twisted and dangerous game than he imagined.
The players include the voluptuous daughter of a conservative US senator, a Glaswegian photographer with a mysterious agenda, a yacht-load of Hollywood producers, a throng of faded porn stars feeling more exposed than ever, and a band of self-righteous extremists bent on a glittering apocalypse. Set on the near side of the millennium, at a point when the world is about to spin out of control, this witty thriller delivers “a crazy off-the-wall roller coaster of a book that throws in not only the kitchen sink but the dresser, the best china, and the cook herself” (The Irish Times).
“A wild, no-punches-pulled ride.” —Philadelphia Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
British author Brookmyre (One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night; Quite Ugly One Morning; etc.) makes his American debut with this thriller, but seems to have left most of his punch on the far side of the ocean. Scottish photographer Steff Kennedy is attending a B-list movie festival, held at an L.A. hotel, where he intends to snap some pics and joke about the self-importance of Hollywood. There he meets and makes eyes with Maddy Witherson, a sweet, misunderstood porn star famous for her leading role in Whore of Babylon; itis later revealed she was sexually abused as a girl by her Bible-waving father, a U.S. senator. Meanwhile, LAPD officer Larry Freeman is investigating the mysterious disappearance of a group of scientists from an ocean research vessel. Everyone's paths cross when a conservative Christian group decides to augment its anti-Hollywood rhetoric with a well-placed bomb, which literally dumps Maddy into Steff's arms. The bombers, however, demand an even more extreme remedy Maddy's suicide on national television as an act of public repentance or they'll blow up a boat full of Hollywood executives. While it's obvious that everyone will scramble to stop the bombers, less plausible elements like a bunch of long-lost religious scrolls and lots of chatter about the impending end of the world, are distracting. Brookmyre's previous book may have achieved some success across the Atlantic, but this jumbled effort feels like it's been cobbled together from whatever trashy American TV shows are currently in British syndication.
