Review by Booklist Review
Actor Lindstrom's debut thriller is set in a locale he knows well, Los Angeles and its outskirts, where former action-hero turned B-movie-star Winston Greene has lived most of his life. Winston wakes one morning to find his six-year-old granddaughter, Amy, in his house, accompanied by a dangerous man who claims he and his cohorts are holding Winston's troubled daughter, Clare, hostage. The kidnappers tell Winston they want all of his money, every last penny, or they'll kill Clare. But Winston, who recently weathered a health crisis and has been supporting Clare and her deadbeat husband, Zeke, is cash-poor and must scramble to figure out what assets he can leverage to appease the kidnappers. Short chapters from multiple points of view help to build suspense, though some of the characters are pretty stock, especially the trio of villainous kidnappers. The character painted most vibrantly is Los Angeles itself. Lindstrom has penned a love letter to the City of Angels, vividly rendering its varied neighborhoods in meticulous detail. A quick, entertaining diversion.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
General Hospital actor Lindstrom debuts with a ho-hum thriller about a movie star caught up in a kidnapping plot. Aging actor Winston Greene discovers that his daughter, Clarissa, has been kidnapped when a man shows up at his suburban Los Angeles home with Clarissa's six-year-old daughter, Amy, in tow. Amy hands Winston a thumb drive with a video of Clarissa's abduction on it, and her captors demand Winston's "movie money" as payment for her return. His accounts, however, have long dried up, so Winston enlists two friends, cop Teddy Beauregard and stunt man Grover Washington, to help him track down and rescue Clarissa. There's no shortage of violent action, and Lindstrom manages a few effective cliffhangers, but he too often relies on excessive description ("A very thin, very old man lay prostrate on the bed. His chest was concave, his extremities pencil like") and paint-by-numbers characterization to make up for the threadbare plot. Even hardcore fans of L.A. noir are likely to find this lacking. Agent: Liza Fleissig, Liza Royce Agency. (Feb.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A Hollywood action star finds he can't just shoot his way out of the situation when his daughter is kidnapped. Winston Greene is usually delighted to see his 6-year-old granddaughter, Amy. Not this morning. He's sound asleep when the kid pokes him awake. He barely has time to wonder how she got to his house before she says, "He told me to get you." He turns out to be a skinny young stranger leaning on a muscle car in Win's driveway, and his message is that Clare, Win's daughter and Amy's mom, has been kidnapped. Win, an actor who's built a career on playing tough guys, knows his urge to beat up or shoot someone won't solve anything in real life. It's his fame--he's not top of the box office, but solid, especially for an actor who's almost 60--that has drawn the kidnappers. In exchange for Clare, they want all his Hollywood money. Problem is, he doesn't have it anymore. His relationship with Clare has long been fraught: Through much of her childhood, he was an alcoholic, and after his beloved wife died, he got worse--but then better. By that time, however, Clare had grown up, become an addict herself, and married another one. Win's objections to the squalid conditions in which they're raising Amy have no bearing on his desperate desire to recover his daughter. Since the kidnappers warned him not to go to the cops, he turns to two close friends: Teddy Beauregard, a disgraced LA cop turned private eye, and Grover Washington, a legendary stuntman. As they race to protect Amy, find out who has Clare, and scrape together enough cash to free her, bodies pile up. The pacing lags occasionally, and the plot is fairly predictable. But Win is a likable protagonist, self-deprecating and funny, and Lindstrom, who's had a long career as an actor, brings authenticity to the novel. You can probably guess the Hollywood ending, but an engaging protagonist makes this thriller a fun ride. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
