Not the End of the World

Book excerpt: 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