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In the grand tradition of Elmore Leonard, Laurence Shames creates an outrageous heavyweight thriller that’s heavy on atmosphere and action. Joey Goldman is a low-level New York hustler. He’s taking a working vacation in South Florida and looking to score big with a time-share scam. His half brother Gino Delgatto is a man in need of a fall guy. When they meet in Key West, the term dysfunctional family takes on a new meaning. Will one of them succeed? Or will the Miami mob find an eye-popping way to dispose of them both?
For ten years Angelina Amaro has kept a secret. She is in love with Sal Martucci, the man who betrayed her father, Mafia godfather Paul Amaro, and sent him away to prison. Sal's been on the run ever since, but Angelina has found him, and when her father finds, out Key West transforms into fair Verona, and a touching and hilarious tale of love, the mob, revenge, redemption, and even some cross-dressing unfolds.
When I wrote Money Talks back in 2007, neither I nor anyone else imagined that the White House would soon be occupied by a man who bears such a striking and in fact uncanny resemblance to my villain, Robert Maxx. I wasn't trying to write a predictive dystopia; all I wanted to do was to tell an engaging story that would let me think my way into the mind of a real-estate mogul with a bullying manner, a head of hair flamboyant enough to match his ego, and a somewhat childish fixation to see his name on very tall buildings.
The Road to Key West is an adventurous/humorous sojourn that cavorts its way through the 1970s Caribbean, from Key West and the Bahamas, to Cuba and Central America. In August of 1971, Kansas Stamps and Will Bell set out to become nothing more than commercial divers in the Florida Keys, but adventure, or misadventure, seems to dog them at every turn.
Reality TV star Buck Nance incites a riot in a bar and vanishes in the melee. His agent, Lane Coolman, has been accidentally taken hostage by two petty criminals who now think they can turn a quick profit by ransoming an LA talent agent.
The mystery of Buck’s disappearance draws in a range of characters from across the island, including a redheaded con artist named Merry who, using a razor blade and a high-speed car, has developed a signature way of luring in her victims.
Back on the Road to Key West reintroduces the somewhat reluctant adventurers Kansas Stamps and Will Bell, casting them into one bizarre situation after another while capturing the true flavor and feel of Key West and the Caribbean in the early 1980s.
In the grand tradition of Elmore Leonard, Laurence Shames creates an outrageous heavyweight thriller that’s heavy on atmosphere and action. Joey Goldman is a low-level New York hustler. He’s taking a working vacation in South Florida and looking to score big with a time-share scam. His half brother Gino Delgatto is a man in need of a fall guy. When they meet in Key West, the term dysfunctional family takes on a new meaning. Will one of them succeed? Or will the Miami mob find an eye-popping way to dispose of them both?
For ten years Angelina Amaro has kept a secret. She is in love with Sal Martucci, the man who betrayed her father, Mafia godfather Paul Amaro, and sent him away to prison. Sal's been on the run ever since, but Angelina has found him, and when her father finds, out Key West transforms into fair Verona, and a touching and hilarious tale of love, the mob, revenge, redemption, and even some cross-dressing unfolds.
When I wrote Money Talks back in 2007, neither I nor anyone else imagined that the White House would soon be occupied by a man who bears such a striking and in fact uncanny resemblance to my villain, Robert Maxx. I wasn't trying to write a predictive dystopia; all I wanted to do was to tell an engaging story that would let me think my way into the mind of a real-estate mogul with a bullying manner, a head of hair flamboyant enough to match his ego, and a somewhat childish fixation to see his name on very tall buildings.
The Road to Key West is an adventurous/humorous sojourn that cavorts its way through the 1970s Caribbean, from Key West and the Bahamas, to Cuba and Central America. In August of 1971, Kansas Stamps and Will Bell set out to become nothing more than commercial divers in the Florida Keys, but adventure, or misadventure, seems to dog them at every turn.
Reality TV star Buck Nance incites a riot in a bar and vanishes in the melee. His agent, Lane Coolman, has been accidentally taken hostage by two petty criminals who now think they can turn a quick profit by ransoming an LA talent agent.
The mystery of Buck’s disappearance draws in a range of characters from across the island, including a redheaded con artist named Merry who, using a razor blade and a high-speed car, has developed a signature way of luring in her victims.
Back on the Road to Key West reintroduces the somewhat reluctant adventurers Kansas Stamps and Will Bell, casting them into one bizarre situation after another while capturing the true flavor and feel of Key West and the Caribbean in the early 1980s.
East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, OAPs are getting hoodwinked, children are missing. But word has spread: if you've got a case the police can't or won't touch, Isaiah Quintabe will help you out. They call him IQ. He's a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. He charges his clients whatever they can afford. But now he needs a client who can pay.
There are hundreds of casinos in Las Vegas, and Billy Cunningham knows how to rip off every one. His scams are a thing of beauty - so perfectly orchestrated that onlookers believe he and his crew are winning fair and square. In a town where bosses will kill to protect their profits, Billy can't afford to make mistakes, but even the best-laid plans can go wrong...
A twisted tale of murder in the world of big-stakes bass fishing tournaments. Filled with ex-wives, evangelists, and an armed pit-bull, this is a story that could only be concocted by Carl Hiaasen, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, New York Times best-selling author, and czar of Florida noir fiction.
Dave Robicheaux has been warned that he's on somebody's hit list, and now the homicide detective is trying to discover just who that is before he ends up dead. Meanwhile he has taken on the murder investigation of a young black girl found dead in the Bayou swamp. Robicheaux uncovers a web of corruption that leads him to a terrifying confrontation with the one horror he fears most of all.
When a severed arm is discovered by a honeymooning couple in the Florida Keys, former police detective - now reluctant restaurant inspector - Andrew Yancy senses that something doesn't add up. Andrew's search for the truth takes him to the Bahamas, where a local man, with the help of a very bad monkey is doing everything in his power to prevent a developer from building a new tourist resort on the island, with deadly consequences...
Slough House is Jackson Lamb’s kingdom; a dumping ground for members of the intelligence service who’ve screwed up: left a secret file on a train, blown surveillance, or become drunkenly unreliable. They’re the service’s poor relations – the slow horses – and bitterest among them is River Cartwright, whose days are spent transcribing mobile phone conversations.
In death she looks 35, but Missy Moonbeam, a.k.a. Thelma Bernbaum, is only 22 when the cops of Rampart Division find her flattened on the sidewalk. A Nebraska farm girl, Missy came to Los Angeles to act, and died not long after her dream did. The detectives assume that her pimp threw her off a roof - but they couldn’t be more wrong. Missy had a trick at Caltech whose name draws the Rampart detectives into a bizarre conspiracy.
Sheriff Colt Harper lives by his own moral code. His relentless crusade against drug crimes in his rural Mississippi county infuriates a Memphis mobster who sends Hack, his cold-blooded assassin, to stop him. ATF Special Agent Molly McDonough, looking to save her troubled career, follows Hack's trail of corpses to Harper's turf. The fates of Harper, McDonough, and Hack collide in a bloody, brutal showdown for justice, redemption, and survival that can only be fought outside the law.
Sunshine State trivia buff Serge A. Storms loves eliminating jerks and pests. His drug-addled partner Coleman loves cartoons. Hot stripper Sharon Rhodes loves cocaine, especially when purchased with rich dead men's money. On the other hand, there's Sean and David, who love fishing and are kind to animals - and who are about to cross paths with a suitcase filled with $5 million in stolen insurance money. Serge wants the suitcase. Sharon wants the suitcase. Coleman wants more drugs... and the suitcase.
For 11 years the clock has been ticking for Russell Gaines while he's sat in Parchman Penitentiary in the Mississippi Delta. His time now up, and believing his debt has been paid, he returns home only to discover that revenge lives and breathes all around.
Belfast, 1993: Jackie Shaw is a young tearaway running with paramilitaries in Belfast. He treads a fine line keeping psychotic hard-man Rab Simpson in check while sleeping with gang leader Billy Tyrie's beautiful wife on the side. When a bomb claims nine lives, he is given the role of getaway driver in a planned reprisal killing, a key role in a major operation. But Jackie may not be who he seems....
From the creator of the hit HBO series True Detective comes a powerful, gleaming-dark thriller rich with Southern atmosphere. Roy Cady is by his own admission 'a bad man'. With a snow flurry of cancer in his lungs and no one to live for, he's a walking time-bomb of violence. Following a fling with his boss' lover, he's sent on a routine assignment he knows is a death trap. Yet after a smoking spasm of violence, Roy's would-be killers are mostly dead and he is mostly alive.
Take three speedboats, a disgruntled ghostwriter, and a hit TV show starring a gorgeous but impossible diva and created by a driven genius who may be losing his marbles. Add a fearless and gleefully profane stuntwoman, an ancient Mafioso with a chihuahua, and a revenge-crazed blonde in gladiator sandals. Stir in a thug with a heart of gold and an inveterate slacker who yearns for glory. Whisk a loopy but tender romance into the mix, turn the whole crew loose in the liberating and seductive sunshine of the Florida Keys - and what do you have? Shot on Location, the new and long-awaited Key West novel by Laurence Shames. Hilarious and suspenseful, wisecracking and wise, this is the most intoxicating story yet from the author of such cult classics as Florida Straits and Sunburn. Longtime Shames fans will rejoice at his return to the fictional turf of Key West and the reappearance of some of his most beloved characters. And new listeners will find themselves in for a hell of a ride as Hollywood glitz meets Florida funky.
The blurb made this sound like a Carl Hiassen caper, but sadly, not even one of my favourite narrators, Richard Ferrone, could reach those heights.
A whodunnit on a film set, not that great, sorry.
Would you listen to Shot on Location again? Why?
I absolutely would, and will. I look forward to every new book by Lawrence Shames. This guy will make you laugh under any circumstance you might be in, no matter how dark or gloomy. I guarantee satisfaction. All his books are set in Key West, which has to be where Mr. Shames lives. He describes it beautifully. The main character is typically a New Yorker. The Mob is always involved. Some of the characters are continuing. Bert the Shirt is my favorite. Bert is now a very old ex-mobster who wears exquisitely tailored shirts, and who carries around his tiny, sickly Mexican Chihuahua everywhere. Richard Ferrone is also an excellent narrator, delivering each chuckle and smile with expert timing and great accents. The plots are all variations on a theme, but somehow Mr. Shames makes them fresh. He does not repeat the jokes, which, when you think about it, after five or six novels set in the same place, is quite an achievement. There is a plot, which is not just an excuse for the humor. Each time I read one of Mr. Shames's books I feel like I have taken a small vacation in Key West. I don't believe I'd like the humidity, but everything else about the place sounds like paradise.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Shot on Location?
I love the romantic scenes between Jake, the main character, and like Shames an ex-New Yorker who is a writer, and Claire, who is an executive and all-around gofer for a TV program which is aptly called Adrift. Shames can write romance in a gentle way, giving us the small details which ring so true. I liked best the restaurant scene in which Claire and Jake share a tiramisu with a slice of mango. At just the exact same moment, the two put their forks into the dessert, and the tines touch in a small but electric way. I obviously can't write like Mr. Shames does, but read it for yourself. He is a charming and witty guy.
Which scene was your favorite?
I think I just answered that question. There are many of them. One comes very early in the book, and sets up the whole plot, and I won't ruin it for you.
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
No. I can't do that. It would involve sitting in one place, or lying down, and devoting all of my attention for many hours. It would resemble how kids devour TV programs they like: they sit there and gorge on twenty episodes, something like Scrubs, for instance. My rear end would get very tired, and I think I would get tired all over. It's nice to have another segment to look forward to.
Any additional comments?
Buy this book. Have fun. Humor like this needs no justification. It is pure fun, which I believe is exactly what Mr. Shames is going for.
12 of 14 people found this review helpful
Any additional comments?
This is a clever plot driven book about the television/publicity industry. I needed something to keep me engaged on a 12 hour drive. This worked quite well. Fun characters. Not too many plot flaws. It helped that I had been to Key West where the story takes place but its not necessary to enjoy the book.
I made it home safely and never got tired.
This book is kinda mediocre. It's OK.. nothing wrong with it. A nice story with fun characters. I just can't say it's great in any way. Not a lot of great action. Not a lot of laugh out loud moments. Not a brilliant story. The reader sounds like he is in his 60's.. he's not bad but not great. The best I can say is that there are a lot of plot twists. If you have read all the really great books and are just looking for something to pass the time, this might work for ya....