A-List (Jake Longly, #2)

by D. P. Lyle

Nothing is easy in The Big Easy

PI Jake Longly and Nicole Jamison head to New Orleans at the behest of Nicole’s uncle, movie producer Charles Balfour, when his megastar, A-list actor Kirk Ford, awakens in his hotel bed with the body of Kristi Guidry, a local college coed.

Ford, in the Big Easy for a location shoot, remembers little of the evening and nothing of the murder. And, to make matters worse, Kristi is the niece of a local mafioso-type who will do whatever is necessary to avenge her death. Balfour is losing money every day the filming is stalled—he needs his actor cleared, and quickly.

Surrounded by glitzy Hollywood stars and intimidated by seedy underworld characters, Jake and Nicole encounter nothing but obstacles. Something isn’t right. The facts don’t fit. Who would want Kristi dead? Why frame Kirk for the murder? Everyone has an opinion, including Kristi’s friends and ex-boyfriend, the local homicide detectives, and a fortune-teller.

The clock is ticking as Jake and Nicole struggle to decipher who’s lying, who’s telling the truth, and exactly who schemed to murder Kristi Guidry.

Perfect for fans of Carl Hiaasen and Janet Evanovich

While all of the novels in the Jake Longly Thriller Series stand on their own and can be read in any order, the publication sequence is:

Deep Six
A-List
Sunshine State
Rigged
The OC

• ISBN10: 1608092704
• ISBN13: 9781608092703
• Publish Date: 12 December 2017
• Publish Status: Inactive
• Out of Print: 24 March 2023
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Oceanview Publishing
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 1
• Language: English

Reviews

[Jeff Sexton]

Great Laid Back Gulf Coast Mystery In The Big Easy. This particular mystery manages to capture the aura and allure of both Hollywood and New Orleans (and my AI voices I use for the Audio book reviews I post to YouTube aren't going to be able to pick up the Southern, much less local, pronunciation of that town's name). You've got the glitzy high priced hotels and the down in the weed drug dealers. You've got Cafe Du Monde and a bayou full of gators. You've got the real world pressures of being on set on a movie and trying to stay within budget... and a lead actor who likes to sleep around with the locals.

 

And then you've got Jake Longly, his girlfriend Nicole, his dad Ray, and his best friend Pancake. Yet again doing what they do, and yet again using each of their talents to help solve the mystery - and resolve the resultant fight scene. Jake being the former MLB pitcher who knows his way around a bat, Nicole learning her way in a fight, Ray being the former SpecOps-adjacent soldier, and Pancake being a beefy guy that could likely hold his own with Jack None Reacher, should the crew ever come across him.

 

This particular entry in the series is absolutely more New Orleans focused than general Gulf Coast / Floribama vibe that the other books in this series generally have, and yet it absolutely works for the story told here.

 

Very much recommended.