Hollywood Hustle: A Thriller

by Jon Lindstrom

Overview

USA TODAY BESTSELLER
From 4-time Emmy-nominated actor Jon Lindstrom of General Hospital, Bosch, and True Detective fame comes a gripping debut thriller.

Set in the dark underbelly of the LA film industry, Hollywood Hustle is the perfect read for fans of Alex Finlay and Jeffery Deaver.

Winston Greene, a has-been film star, wakes one morning to find his six-year-old granddaughter at his bedside—traumatized, unattended, and gripping onto a thumb drive. She comes bearing video proof that her mother, Win’s troubled adult daughter, has been kidnapped by a murderous gang demanding all his “movie money” for her safe return. But what they don’t know is…his movie money is long gone.

Unable to go to the police for fear the kidnappers will make good on their promise to kill his daughter, Winston turns to two close friends—a legendary Hollywood stuntman and a disgraced former LAPD detective.

There’s no easy way out for Winston or his daughter—the gang is violent and willing to do anything to get the money they’re after, and Winston begins to realize that to get his daughter back, he’ll have to beat the kidnappers at their own game.

This propulsive and tense thriller will transport readers to the seedier side of LA, depicted in bold prose by a Hollywood insider.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798892420686
Publisher:	CROOKED LANE BOOKS
Publication date:	11/19/2024
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	45,924
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

A four-time Emmy nominee, Jon Lindstrom can be found in studio movies, independent films and literally thousands of hours of TV, working with several A-list directors and alongside many of Hollywood’s biggest names. An award-winning filmmaker, Jon's films have won multiple film festival accolades. His writing has won recognition at the Launchpad Prose Competition twice and several top screenplay competitions. For several years, he was the drummer for The High Lonesome, scoring two hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Jon divides his time between Los Angeles and New York City.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Hollywood Hustle:

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

“An engaging protagonist makes this thriller a fun ride.”
—Kirkus

“Effective cliffhangers.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Lindstrom has penned a love letter to the City of Angels, vividly rendering its varied neighborhoods in meticulous detail. A quick, entertaining diversion.”
—Booklist

“A high stakes, high octane thrill ride. Lindstrom, a Hollywood insider, is the real deal.”
—Robert Dugoni, New York Times bestselling author of The Tracy Crosswhite Series

“If you’re looking for a gritty, edgy getaway to LA without ever leaving your sofa, Hollywood Hustle is it! Harkening back to days of noir, this action-packed thriller will grab you from page 1.”
—Lisa Gardner, #1 New York Times bestselling author

“Humor, emotion, brilliant twists, and heart-thumping action . . . Lindstrom has exploded onto the scene with a resounding bang.”
—Samantha M. Bailey, USA Today and #1 national bestselling author of Woman on the Edge

“Impossible to put down.”
—Robert Greenfield, bestselling author of True West: Sam Shepard's Life, Work, and Times

“A pulse-pounding thriller that immerses you into the seamy underworld of Hollywood . . . I raced through it!”
—Liv Constantine, bestselling author of The Last Mrs. Parrish

“A propulsive, unputdownable thriller that explores the dark side behind the glitter and glamour of LaLa Land . . . This is one of the best debut novels I’ve ever read.”
—Alex Finlay, author of The Night Shift

“Writing with an assured voice . . . Jon Lindstrom brings a wealth of authenticity, sharp wit, and ingenuity to his twisty immensely entertaining debut novel.”
—Steven James, bestselling author of Broker of Lies

“Hollywood Hustle has all the premium ingredients . . . all making the perfect recipe for a bestselling thriller.”
—Yasmin Angoe, Anthony nominated author of the critically acclaimed Nena Knight series

“Sharp prose, vivid descriptions, and a cast of colorful characters set in sun-drenched L.A. mark this debut filled with intrigue, heart, and echoes of Chandler and Leonard.”
—Aaron Philip Clark, author of the ITW Thriller Award-nominated Under Color of Law

“Lindstrom brings his large cast to life in a rich, lively, suspenseful novel that has, in abundance, realism, humor (and a satisfying body count).”
—Castle Freeman Jr., acclaimed author of Go with Me

“An insanely paced thriller . . . Combines a deep knowledge of the history of Los Angeles with a propulsive modern take on the noir tradition.”
—James & Paula O’Byrne, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, New Orleans Times Picayune

“Lindstrom delivers a wild ride in technicolor.”
—John McMahon, author of The Good Detective

“Bold, cinematic, shocking, compelling, and addictive . . . Destined to be a genre classic.”
—Will “the Thrill” Viharo, author of Love Stories Are Too Violent For Me

“A clever and gripping thriller . . . It is hard to believe this is a debut.”
—Jeff Ayers, First Clue Reviews

From the Publisher

01/15/2024

General Hospital actor Lindstrom debuts with a ho-hum thriller about a movie star caught up in a kidnapping plot. Aging actor Winston Greene discovers that his daughter, Clarissa, has been kidnapped when a man shows up at his suburban Los Angeles home with Clarissa’s six-year-old daughter, Amy, in tow. Amy hands Winston a thumb drive with a video of Clarissa’s abduction on it, and her captors demand Winston’s “movie money” as payment for her return. His accounts, however, have long dried up, so Winston enlists two friends, cop Teddy Beauregard and stunt man Grover Washington, to help him track down and rescue Clarissa. There’s no shortage of violent action, and Lindstrom manages a few effective cliffhangers, but he too often relies on excessive description (“A very thin, very old man lay prostrate on the bed. His chest was concave, his extremities pencil like”) and paint-by-numbers characterization to make up for the threadbare plot. Even hardcore fans of L.A. noir are likely to find this lacking. Agent: Liza Fleissig, Liza Royce Agency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

After years of narrating novels by Alex Finlay, Stephen Hunter, and Don Winslow, narrator Jon Lindstrom has decided to craft his own thriller, one that highlights his flinty, resonant voice and draws from his years of Hollywood acting experience. The result is an entertaining, often violent, addition to the L.A. noir genre. The plot is familiar--a washed-up B-List former star, along with a disillusioned ex-cop and a celebrity stuntman, must rescue the actor's estranged drug-addled daughter from three dysfunctional kidnappers. The players are an amalgam of characters we've met in books by Elmore Leonard and Michael Connelly. Still, the audiobook masks these derivative elements and maintains the tension with the help of Lindstrom's burnished voice and dramatic pacing. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

JUNE 2024 - AudioFile

2024-01-05
A Hollywood action star finds he can’t just shoot his way out of the situation when his daughter is kidnapped.

Winston Greene is usually delighted to see his 6-year-old granddaughter, Amy. Not this morning. He’s sound asleep when the kid pokes him awake. He barely has time to wonder how she got to his house before she says, “He told me to get you.” He turns out to be a skinny young stranger leaning on a muscle car in Win’s driveway, and his message is that Clare, Win’s daughter and Amy’s mom, has been kidnapped. Win, an actor who’s built a career on playing tough guys, knows his urge to beat up or shoot someone won’t solve anything in real life. It’s his fame—he’s not top of the box office, but solid, especially for an actor who’s almost 60—that has drawn the kidnappers. In exchange for Clare, they want all his Hollywood money. Problem is, he doesn’t have it anymore. His relationship with Clare has long been fraught: Through much of her childhood, he was an alcoholic, and after his beloved wife died, he got worse—but then better. By that time, however, Clare had grown up, become an addict herself, and married another one. Win’s objections to the squalid conditions in which they’re raising Amy have no bearing on his desperate desire to recover his daughter. Since the kidnappers warned him not to go to the cops, he turns to two close friends: Teddy Beauregard, a disgraced LA cop turned private eye, and Grover Washington, a legendary stuntman. As they race to protect Amy, find out who has Clare, and scrape together enough cash to free her, bodies pile up. The pacing lags occasionally, and the plot is fairly predictable. But Win is a likable protagonist, self-deprecating and funny, and Lindstrom, who’s had a long career as an actor, brings authenticity to the novel.

You can probably guess the Hollywood ending, but an engaging protagonist makes this thriller a fun ride.

Kirkus Reviews