Product Description

One-hit wonder Nick Carbone has married, settles down, and makes a living in Southern California producing bands who barely remember his own gold record, but when an old friend shows up with his sexy girlfriend, Alison, jealousies flare and murder soon follows.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3949921 in Books
• Published on: 1996-08-27
• Released on: 1996-08-27
• Format: Audiobook
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Audio Cassette

Amazon.com Review
Nick Carbonne is solid, good-looking, and disarmingly hip. The former front man for the thrash band Plague Dogs, he has found his space as a producer of such cutting-edge groups as O. J.'s Knife. He's also found his wife and his best buddy snuggled naked together in a hot tub. Dead. To determine what happened, he scours the sleaze off the denizens of southern California's music industry in this acerbic look at Orange County, the rock industry, and the unhealthy business of murder.

From Publishers Weekly
Familiarity with Ferrigno's three previous novels (Dead Man's Dance, etc.) won't breed contempt for his fourth, which is as fast and nasty as a cobra strike. It does raise the question, however, of why this talented author doesn't vary his formula. Again, Ferrigno presents an ominous California noir-scape teeming with quirky sadistic villains, dangerous slinky babes and a hip but good-hearted hero caught in their violent wake. Former rock star Nick Carbonne becomes the cops' chief suspect in the shooting death of his wife and his old band buddy, Perry. Ferrigno lavishes his liveliest prose, however, on Alison, Perry's sexy Texas girlfriend, who keeps Nick in a state of erotic expectation as the two of them attempt to solve the murders. Alison and Perry's specialty was making and selling audiotapes of dirty phone calls that Alison placed to strangers?a relatively harmless and quite lucrative pursuit, until the couple inadvertently taped the murder of one of their regular "clients." As they track the killer, Nick and Alison win the shaky support of a local cop. They also acquire more insidious help: the protection of the "Blue Angel," an ice-blooded killer who's after the same quarry, if for different reasons. Ferrigno spices this fruity slice of West Coast life with acerbic takes on aging rockers and motorcycle gangsters, post-punk bar and party people, lowlife agents, videophiles and perverts. He tells a nimble mystery, nostalgically propelled by sex, drugs, rock-and-roll?and more than one echo of his earlier work. Film rights sold to Twentieth Century Fox.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In Ferrigno's L.A. world of has-beens and wannabes, there is little privacy or shame. Nick, a former rock star looking for work, and aspiring actress Allison, the girlfriend of Nick's old pal Perry, return from networking at a record party to find Perry and Nick's wife, Sharon, naked and dead by the hot tub. Phone sex tapes performed by Allison and produced by Perry seem an inadequate motive for the crime, except for the cassette that may have picked up a murder too. So vengeful Nick, with Allison at his side, is on the chase, intersecting with the book's two most memorable characters: Detective Calvin Thorpe, a charmer who plays whatever role works, and hit man Blue Angel, a washed-out navy pilot with his own fighter jets who is as handsome as he is lethal. Ferrigno (Dead Man's Dance, LJ 5/1/95) provides a convoluted plot laced with sex and drugs and loaded with violent action, in which?in its own way?justice is served. Good, hard-boiled entertainment perfectly tailored for the big screen, with film rights already sold.?Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

great writer
I'm really surprised by the savage reviews here. In my opinion, Ferrigno has written another interesting, cool book with a plot that kept me guessing and a relationship that I kept rooting for. I've read his first three and now this one, and I've thoroughly enjoyed them all.

Slightly Better than Terrible
Okay, judging from all the other reviews it's obvious that I'm not the only person who didn't like this book. Since Ferrigno has written several other books that are quite good, it truly does seem like this is one that just got cranked out in a hurry without much thought. The plot is weak, the characters mostly unlikeable...I found very little to like about this book at all. In fact, the only reason I gave it two stars instead of one is because the villianous character called The Angel was rather amusing. All in all, I would say avoid this book and buy one of Ferrigno's other novels. This one is just really, really bad...as my title says, it's only slightly better than terrible.

A wasted evening....
I was 3 quarters of the way through this book and realised it was not going to get any better. A forced , unlikely plot. Dislikeable , uninteresting characters. Predictable ending. Books like this drive people back to the TV times.