Synopsis
In the tradition of Get Shorty and The Player, Turnpike Flameout pierces America's veil of celebrity and asks: When does fame become a crime?
Early praise for Turnpike Flameout:
"Turnpike Flameout is one of the funniest, smartest novels I've ever read. Everything about the book is top-shelf—the characters, the humor, the writing, the satire, the slick plot. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit it, but Eric Dezenhall has written a novel that leaves the rest of us mumbling and shaking our heads, wondering how in the world he pulled it off."
—Martin Clark, author of The Many Aspects of Mobile Home Living and Plain Heathen Mischief
"Turnpike Flameout is what's really going on while the rest of us are watching the spun-for-the-masses version of star meltdowns on Entertainment Tonight! A fast-paced trip behind the facade of celebrity persona into the rarely seen reality of what it means to be a fading star. The ultimate celebrity tantrum, totally outrageous and totally believable."
—Lisa Brandt, Celebrity Tantrums: The Official Dirt
"With snortworthy humor, Eric Dezenhall takes you to a messy, sinister realm - the weird world of crisis-managing a retrograde pop idol who's gone right off the edge. Finally - an irresistible mystery for people who hide their copy of Us Weekly inside a copy of Vanity Fair inside a copy of the Economist. Smart, bizarre, and oddly danceable."
—Hank Stuever, author of Off Ramp: Adventures and Heartache in the American Elsewhere
Praise for Eric Dezenhall and Shakedown Beach:
"A cheeky political satire...Here's proof that politics is funny when it isn't even trying."
—Marilyn Stasio, NYTBR
"Reads like a Carl Hiaasen novel hijacked from South Florida and plopped down in South Jersey...a well-observed thriller."
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
"Dezenhall is the most mordantly funny writer not named Westlake, with an ear for the zinger, a lie detector that makes mincemeat of politicians and spinmeisters, and the ability to plot like Machiavelli."
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Publishers Weekly
In Dezenhall's mildly diverting fourth mystery (after 2004's Shakedown Beach), Jonah Eastman, grandson of a late Atlantic City Mafia bigwig, agrees to assist a public relations colleague handling Turnpike Bobby Chin, one-time child star turned '80s rock star ("For a fleeting moment Bobby had become Jersey's second-favorite rocker after Springsteen"). Chin, who's trying for a second comeback, has somehow survived a private plane crash and become the lead suspect in the disappearance-and possible murder-of a local sculptor. Eastman, simultaneously repelled and fascinated by Chin's near-pathological narcissism, soon realizes that his new client is his own worst enemy, though Chin is ably assisted by investigative music journalists after his scalp as well as the not-especially-bright star's own supporters and hangers-on. While the author's narrative skill suffices to keep the plot rolling and tumbling, his would-be colorful characters come off as rejects from one of Elmore Leonard's lesser novels, and their snappy patter sags more often than it snaps. (Jan.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.