Post by ~nickidepphead~ on Jan 9, 2009 13:40:29 GMT
Johnny's half brother, Daniel, is set to release his first book in the very near future. Here's a brief article and synopsis:
First-Time Thrills
Eight mystery debuts
by dick Donahue -- Publishers Weekly, 11/24/2008
Each season publishers promise thrills and chills from first-time mystery authors. What's the allure of these debuts, we wondered, for readers and specialty bookstores? According to Maggie Griffin, co-owner of New York City's Partners & Crime Bookstore, “In the mystery field there's a strong tradition of supporting each new crop of crime writers. There's a real thrill in discovering a new talent, a sincere pleasure in helping an unknown crime writer find their readership, and it's good business to cultivate a customer base that'll pull out their credit cards when you say, 'Buy this mystery, you won't regret it.' ” Griffin contends that introducing new writers to customers is key to the success of not only the writer but the independent mystery bookstore itself, which depends on establishing a trust with return customers. “We read the books we sell and we listen.”
What follows is a selection of promising first-timers coming in early 2009.
Loser's Town
by Daniel Depp
(Simon & Schuster, Mar.)
First printing: 100,000
Plot: A darkly comic debut thriller introducing David Spandau, a PI whose laconic wit and keen Hollywood insider's sensibility are put to the test when he is hired by a rising actor at the center of a filmmaking—and blackmailing—scheme gone wrong.
Author's inspiration: “Hollywood somewhere along the way managed to carry illusion off the soundstage and convert it into a lifestyle. As a result, nobody there now has the slightest idea what's real and what isn't, and everybody exists in a kind of extended dream. Give any dream long enough and eventually it will become a nightmare. I wanted to write something about people who are trapped by their own dreams.”
Clues to success: Says editor Sarah Hochman, “Loser's Town is refreshingly funny and sharp, narrated by that laconic, witty, insider's voice from which the dark humor and sordid underbelly of L.A. life rise to the surface of any good Hollywood thriller.”
Body count: 4.
Hollywood pitch: Get Shorty meets L.A. Confidential.
Book Description
In this darkly comic thriller set in modern-day Hollywood, an aging private eye is hired by a rising young actor at the center of a scheme gone wrong.
David Spandau is a P.I. and sometime rodeo cowboy. At the tail end of some much-needed vacation time, he takes a meeting with a talent agent whose client, Bobby Dye, is being blackmailed and threatened. Dye is young, brash, and on the verge of becoming a major star—if he lasts that long. It turns out that Dye faked a threatening note to hide a far more incriminating secret. When Spandau agrees to investigate, the game gets deadly.
Spandau looks like Robert Mitchum and speaks like Humphrey Bogart playing Philip Marlowe. He is surrounded him with other fantastic characters: sadistic talent agents, ambitious mobsters intent on breaking into showbiz, small-time hustlers trying to stay out of the limelight. The setting is Hollywood today, but the mood is L.A. noir: crackling dialogue, a fast-paced plot, and the temptations and illusions unique to the City of Angels.
First-Time Thrills
Eight mystery debuts
by dick Donahue -- Publishers Weekly, 11/24/2008
Each season publishers promise thrills and chills from first-time mystery authors. What's the allure of these debuts, we wondered, for readers and specialty bookstores? According to Maggie Griffin, co-owner of New York City's Partners & Crime Bookstore, “In the mystery field there's a strong tradition of supporting each new crop of crime writers. There's a real thrill in discovering a new talent, a sincere pleasure in helping an unknown crime writer find their readership, and it's good business to cultivate a customer base that'll pull out their credit cards when you say, 'Buy this mystery, you won't regret it.' ” Griffin contends that introducing new writers to customers is key to the success of not only the writer but the independent mystery bookstore itself, which depends on establishing a trust with return customers. “We read the books we sell and we listen.”
What follows is a selection of promising first-timers coming in early 2009.
Loser's Town
by Daniel Depp
(Simon & Schuster, Mar.)
First printing: 100,000
Plot: A darkly comic debut thriller introducing David Spandau, a PI whose laconic wit and keen Hollywood insider's sensibility are put to the test when he is hired by a rising actor at the center of a filmmaking—and blackmailing—scheme gone wrong.
Author's inspiration: “Hollywood somewhere along the way managed to carry illusion off the soundstage and convert it into a lifestyle. As a result, nobody there now has the slightest idea what's real and what isn't, and everybody exists in a kind of extended dream. Give any dream long enough and eventually it will become a nightmare. I wanted to write something about people who are trapped by their own dreams.”
Clues to success: Says editor Sarah Hochman, “Loser's Town is refreshingly funny and sharp, narrated by that laconic, witty, insider's voice from which the dark humor and sordid underbelly of L.A. life rise to the surface of any good Hollywood thriller.”
Body count: 4.
Hollywood pitch: Get Shorty meets L.A. Confidential.
Book Description
In this darkly comic thriller set in modern-day Hollywood, an aging private eye is hired by a rising young actor at the center of a scheme gone wrong.
David Spandau is a P.I. and sometime rodeo cowboy. At the tail end of some much-needed vacation time, he takes a meeting with a talent agent whose client, Bobby Dye, is being blackmailed and threatened. Dye is young, brash, and on the verge of becoming a major star—if he lasts that long. It turns out that Dye faked a threatening note to hide a far more incriminating secret. When Spandau agrees to investigate, the game gets deadly.
Spandau looks like Robert Mitchum and speaks like Humphrey Bogart playing Philip Marlowe. He is surrounded him with other fantastic characters: sadistic talent agents, ambitious mobsters intent on breaking into showbiz, small-time hustlers trying to stay out of the limelight. The setting is Hollywood today, but the mood is L.A. noir: crackling dialogue, a fast-paced plot, and the temptations and illusions unique to the City of Angels.