Blonde Lightning

In Earthquake Weather, Terrill Lee Lankford mined his own experiences as a player in the glamorous, ruthless movie business to create a West Coast noir hailed by T. Jefferson Parker as "part Raymond Chandler and part Nathanael West." Now get ready for another thrill ride down the Boulevard of Broken Dreams--where a wrong turn can lead to a very dead end.Out of work in The Industry, Mark Hayes decides he's desperate enough to hitch his wagon to the dubious star of Clyde McCoy, a hard-drinking veteran screenwriter known only too well for being difficult. Clyde has secured the backing to produce his latest script, a noir homage called Blonde Lightning. With a popular action star and a sexy up-and-comer on board in the lead roles, he's cleaning up his act, dusting off his director's chair, and is determined to make the picture happen.For investing the last of his savings into the production, Mark gets the title of associate producer. However, his real job is on-set troubleshooter--his duties ranging from keeping a randy old character actor on a short leash to caring for and feeding some very high-maintenance investors. But the real trouble starts when a crewmember is nearly electrocuted. Clyde suspects sabotage, compliments of Mace Thornburg, an industry bottom-feeder with a grudge against nearly everyone in Hollywood, including Clyde's martial-arts-actress girlfriend. After she's almost killed in another suspicious accident, Clyde and Mark resort to drastic measures to exact revenge. But when the payback plot takes an unscripted turn, the deadly drama is suddenly no longer in front of the cameras. Now, trapped like a pawn in a classic double-cross scenario, Mark realizes the only way out is for him and Clyde to wade deeper into a violent nightmare of treachery, lies, and murder as black and inescapable as the La Brea tar pits. It's a trip Clyde seems more than willing to take . . . and that Mark discovers is part of the high price for finally getting his name on the silver screen.From the Hardcover edition.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.