Thrill-a-minute crime fiction—infused with wry humor
Restaurant owner and former professional baseball player Jake Longly is hoping for a few weeks of fun with Nicole Jamison in the warm Orange County, CA sun—The OC, baby. After that, they’ll be on their way to LA for the filming of Nicole’s sure-to-be-a-hit screenplay.
On arrival, they discover that Nicole’s friend Megan Weatherly, a local TV reporter, has picked up an anonymous stalker. Megan downplays any real danger, but her new intern Abby, as well as Jake and Nicole, don’t agree. Bit by bit, as the harassment escalates and the shadowy man invades Megan’s world, Jake calls in the big guns from back home in Alabama: Ray and Pancake. But will Ray’s military black ops experience and Pancake’s technical skills be enough to expose the predator in time?
The stalker is no fool and likely has a predatory history. He makes no mistakes and manages to cover his trail completely. So, how do you identify and locate the untraceable? How do you protect Megan from a potentially lethal phantom?
Suddenly the sunshine and safety of The OC seem more facade than reality. Jake and crew must punch through that facade and dig into the dark world of celebrity stalking. The clock is ticking.
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
Never Bring A Rock To A Gun Fight... Unless You're A Former MLB Starting Pitcher Turned Private Eye. Full confession here: These books have seemed interesting enough over the years, and they've been at the right price points often enough ($2.99 or less, and likely free) that I'd actually picked up the entire series before this book... and never read any of them. So even while I already had the previous four books in this series in my library, this was the first book in it - or from this author at all - that I had actually read. And it totally works as a standalone, as long as you don't mind commentary that references the previous stories in ways that absolutely spoils many of them.
So far as this book itself is concerned, it was a fun tale full of quite a bit of banter between Jake Longley and his friends and colleagues, with a bit of "oh, crap, our friend is in trouble in a way that we might be able to help with" thrown in. So even while many of the characters are PIs, this isn't a case they are getting paid for. And it is a stalker case, with only the last few chapters having any real, direct action. Which is actually where the title of this review comes in. Early in the book - possibly when Jake is first introduced, that early - it is mentioned that Jake often travels with baseballs both in case he runs across fans *and* to use as a weapon if the need arises. Well, in our finale... he doesn't have his baseballs with him. So he gets creative, in ways that even by that point in this book - even if it is your first book in this series - you've come to expect. Very much recommended.
Reading updates
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Started reading
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29 August, 2021:
Finished reading
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29 August, 2021:
Reviewed