Public Opinion

by Nathan Pettijohn

Overview

Herb is a fixer, a social media manipulator, an anonymous barracuda in a sea of wealthy marks. Blackmail, character assassination, fraud—it's all in a day's work When a quick scam introduces Herb to a cold-blooded director on a quest to film the Marquis de Sade's Justine, Herb enters a world of porn stars and celebrity sociopaths, massage parlors and murder. Herb is building a family. He's trying to build a conscience. But most importantly, Herb will get his money, no matter how many lives he has to ruin along the way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781544532240
Publisher:	Cordurouy Books
Publication date:	07/19/2022
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Nathan Pettijohn is an author and entrepreneur. A contributing writer for Forbes on topics relating to what business leaders need to know about innovations in media and technology, Nathan is also the author of a travelogue called Travels With Hafa. In 2011, Nathan founded Cordurouy, a digital strategy agency based in Los Angeles, where he serves as CEO. He resides somewhere in Central or South America with his dog, Raphael. You can contact Nathan on social media at @nrpettijohn.

Editorial Reviews

2022-07-05
A Los Angeles fixer gets in over his head in Pettijohn’s dark debut thriller.

Everyone in Hollywood thinks Melvin Ritkin is a competent tech expert—the kind of person whom celebrities call when their laptops get hacked and they need to make sure nothing ruinous leaks to the media. In reality, Melvin is a con man—the kind of person who secretly hacks someone’s laptop and then gets himself hired to fix the problems he’s created. “What I am is a dirty, slimy opportunist,” he explains, “a grifter and a liar, a catfish and a cyberbully. I enable deep fakes, spread vicious rumors, and sling bullshit far and wide on the almighty internet for whoever pays me the most.” (It goes without saying that Melvin isn’t even his real name.) After his latest successful scheme, he finds himself unexpectedly involved with prominent porn star Ruby, who’s been hired as a consultant for a movie. Its director, a famous, egomaniacal actor named Titus, has plans to make a big-budget adaptation of the Marquis de Sade’s transgressive erotic novel Justine. Melvin thinks that he might be in love with Ruby, and when she reveals to him she’s pregnant, he hopes to raise the baby with her. When Titus hires Melvin to help him make a personal problem go away, however, he’s drawn into a conspiracy of sex, lies, and murder so dark that it might cost Melvin more than his ruthless, calculating heart can bear to lose. As he notes early in the novel, “The naïve never know they’re being naïve….but it is essential to remember that anyone can be manipulated—even you.” Will he heed his own advice?Over the course of this novel, Pettijohn’s prose, as narrated by Melvin, is sharp and confident. The protagonist’s keen observational eye and disdain for the villainous behavior of others will mostly win the reader over to his side. This makes it all the more disturbing when Melvin’s own bad acts slither onto the page: “I decided to look into ways to attain chloroform, as that was my best bet for peacefully solving disputes with Ruby: simply knocking her unconscious. It turns out you can make your own chloroform using basic household ingredients.” Dating a porn star apparently unlocks some deeper anti-social tendencies that Melvin was previously able to hide, even from himself. It’s an unsteadying book that’s not quite a satire but not entirely sincere, either. It features odious men behaving very badly to women—the protagonist included—and although the book seems on its surface to condemn these actions, it doesn’t go so far as to present a female character who isn’t treated as a sex object by men. The result is a grim read about compromised morals and self-delusion—one that’s not as depraved as the works of the Marquis de Sade, but neither is it quite as thoughtful (or as funny) as it seems to be aiming for.

A heavy, disturbing novel about the secret lives of powerful men.

Kirkus Reviews