Loser's Town- Daniel Depp

Loser's Town
Daniel Depp
Simon and Schuster, Mar 3 2009, $25.00
ISBN: 1439101434

David Spandau left the movies when his body failed to recover from the stunts he performed. Instead the stuntman becomes a private investigator as he assumes that has to be a much softer job than bouncing out of moving vehicles that are ablaze; and besides he does know Hollywood.

David is hired to protect movie star Bobby Dye from the threats of Mafioso Richie Stella. The drug dealing club owner has told the actor her will perform in his film or be exposed for his role with an underage deceased female; if that fails to entice the star from acting in Stella’s project, the next offer he will not refuse or he will be dead too.

The key to this engaging invigorating thriller is the mean streets of Hollywood where a theatre of the absurd perform nightly using sardonic wit as a ticket to the stars, wannabe stars, and the supernova stars. The protection of Dye is the prime theme of the energetic plot, but that takes a back seat to Spandau's ballet tour of the city that introduces the readers to an eccentric crowd where Hobbits are quoted as great Noir philosophers. Fans will enjoy the strong support cast as the hero’s adventures brings James Ellroy's 1953 based L.A. Confidential into the twenty-first century.

Harriet Klausner