Customer Reviews

Scavenger Hunt: A novel

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's just the end of January 2003 as I sit here with snow on the ground and Robin Mink on the CD player, so you have to understand that it's way too early to be making statements like the one I'm going to make. I can't help it, though. I'm going to go ahead and predict that, come December, Robert Ferrigno's novel SCAVENGER HUNT is going to be on my Top Ten Best of 2003 list.

I know, I know --- it's tough to make a prediction like that so early in the year. But SCAVENGER HUNT is the book that Ferrigno's legion of followers has been waiting for. It is not merely a great Ferrigno book or even a great mystery. It is a great novel, period. It has all of the elements: tight plotting, memorable prose and characters that leap off of the page and into your world. It's a book that you swim in and maybe drown in, as opposed to wade through. Readable? Hah! Try to stop!

SCAVENGER HUNT brings intrepid SLAP reporter Jimmy Gage back for another go-round. SCAVENGER HUNT is not a sequel to FLINCH, where we first met Gage; no, SCAVENGER HUNT stands quite well on its own. Ferrigno fleshes Gage out and goes deeper into his character, making him more three-dimensional and ultimately more likable. This time around, Gage is on a Hollywood party scavenger hunt when he encounters Garrett Walsh, a former movie director flavor-of-the-month whose career abruptly came to an end when he was arrested for the rape and murder of an underage girl. Walsh pled guilty and, under the terms of a plea bargain, spent seven years in prison. Newly released, Walsh feels that Gage is just the ticket to help him clear his name. He plans to refurbish his reputation through Fall Guy, a movie script he is working on and that he swears will tell the story of how he was set up. Just a couple of weeks after they meet, however, Gage finds Walsh dead in a fishpond, apparently having drowned while intoxicated. Gage's reporting instincts immediately kick in --- Walsh's story of being set up has the ring of truth to it and his accidental death, while convenient with his unfortunate drug use, is just a bit too convenient. What Gage doesn't know, however, is that his investigation is attracting the notice of the wrong people and putting him squarely in the crosshairs of danger.

Ferrigno does a simply incredible job of misdirection here, yet he plays fair every step of the way. I thought I had SCAVENGER HUNT figured out a number of times and was totally wrong more than once. Ferrigno also does an incredible job of pacing, dropping major and minor bombs throughout SCAVENGER HUNT from the beginning to the end. All of the characters, from the one-page walk-ons to the major players, are interesting and real. And wait until you encounter Sugar. Just wait. This is an unforgettable book, filled with unforgettable characters.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Robert Ferrigno's "Scavenger Hunt" is a subtle, darkly mesmerizing Hollywood tale of murder, ambition, frame-ups, set-ups, double-crosses and clever sleuthing.

After serving seven years, Oscar winning producer Garrett Walsh is determined to prove his innocence. His vehicle is what he terms, the "most dangerous screenplay in Hollywood." Walsh wants SLAP magazine's cynical, skeptical, irreverent, high profile reporter Jimmy Gage to publicize the screenplay, before someone attempts to silence him permanently.

Jimmy fails to buy in. But, when Walsh is found floating in his koi pond and the screenplay missing, Jimmy doubts it was the accidental death the police claim.

No one shares Jimmy's thesis except his nefarious pal Rollo. Together they work their way thru a colorful cast of quirky Hollywood types, and around the cops who consider the case closed.

The plot is superb: sophisticated, solid, circuitous and overflowing with scintillating dialogue.

Mr. Ferrigno withholds enough info to keep surprises coming and the pages turning. The pace never slackens, and the accelerating danger of the killer keeps the tenseness at a high pitch.

A delightful read. Hooray for Hollywood!

Looking for an Oscar on a scavanger hunt in L.A. cynical magazine writer Jimmy Gage comes to the door of Garrett Walsh, who had been a boy genius filmmaker. Walsh has just finished serving a prison sentence for killing a teenage girl. He has a new screenplay about a brilliant director framed for murder, what else, and once he finds out who Gage is, he asks for his help.

But before Gage can do anything for the director, Walsh is found floating in a carp pond, dead. The police say accident, Gage doesn't think so and he starts investigating.

Robert Ferrigno is one of my favorite writers. He writes with wit and style, painting unforgettable characters in wild, wooly, urban Southern California and this book is no exception. We get tough guys who aren't so tough, smart guys who aren't so smart, hustlers and a murderer. And we get one of Ferrigno's best.

Ferringon continues to make me a fan of his work. This novel is populated with fewer strange characters than "Flinch" and is a less personal story (I guess any story where you suspect your brother of being a serial keller is personal as in Flinch)...yet it works. The murder mysteries here take some great turns. Jimmy is far more settled in this book and seems happier. I was sad to see Jane Holt and Desmond relgated to smaller roles. Same with Rollo, although he was around. This was much more about the case and less about these wonderful characters. Still, the mystery is a dandy and Hollywood again is shown to be a place of murder and redemption.

I rarely get sucked into a book the way I did by this one. Congradulations Robert Ferrigno, this is an absulote page turner. Good character development with many twists and turns to the storyline. This book is exactly what a mystery should be, believable and hard core content.

Thank you

A readable but unremarkable story set in the pit of all excess, Hollywood.

This is not the first book with the Jimmy Gage protagonist, and it would be helpful to start at the beginning. The story contains a few plot twists to keep it interesting, but they could have been more artfully done. The Killer's ultimate motivation is never made clear. In addition, the protagonist's coup de main's are executed just a bit too easily.

This book is OK for the beach.

This moves when the bad guy is on the page. Gather this one up for an enjoyable summer read.

At his best ("The Horse Latitudes," "Heartbreaker"), Robert Ferrigno writes stylish, smart thrillers that evoke film noir as imagined by Quentin Tarantino. When Ferrigno's not at his best, his novels are uneven and are something like the literary equivalent of stale Cracker Jacks -- still satisfying and the surprise inside may delight you, but you know you've had better.

"Scavenger Hunt" brings back reporter Jimmy Gage (last seen in "Flinch"), who writes articles for the Hollywood magazine "SLAP." Gage is a street smart tough guy whose moral compass is stronger than his legal compass. As long as he thinks he's doing the right thing, he's more than willing to bend the rules. Gage meets former movie director Garrett Walsh, who made a brilliant movie a long time ago, then pled guilty to murdering a high school tart the same day that he met and slept with her. After serving a 7 year sentence, Walsh is determined to write "the most dangerous screenplay," which will explain how he was set up. He wants Gage to write an article about this. Gage thinks Walsh is just a loser who pissed away his talent years ago. But then Walsh ends up face-down in the koi pond of his former house (he was renting a small cabin on the property from the owners), half-eaten by the ravenous fish. Gage gets interested in figuring things out, especially when the coroner pronounces it an accidental death.

The supporting characters are drawn nicely, from the tough-as-nails female detective that everyone is afraid of, the retired cop who busted Walsh seven years ago, Gage's assorted buddies who operate just on this side of the law.

So why am I less impressed with this than "The Horse Latitudes," which remains in my view Ferrigno's best? At his best, Ferrigno's writing has a fluidity to it that's almost cinematic. It has a power that propels the story forward. In "Scavenger Hunt," on the other hand, there's sometimes a disjointedness, as if particular scenes were written because they should be in there. The best comparison I can think of is between the fight scene in "The Horse Latitudes," where Danny DiMedici has to get past a Samoan bodyguard (and uses cooking oil to help grease things, so to speak) versus the fight between Gage and a husband he's angered in "Scavenger Hunt." The former was tight, exciting, and clever; the latter is okay but a bit tired and abrupt.

Don't get me wrong: I enjoyed "Scavenger Hunt," finishing it in just two nights; and if Ferrigno turns out other novels of this quality, he's well worth reading. It's just that I know he's capable of better.

Reporter Jimmy Gage works the Hollywood beat for SLAP magazine, a "tabloid" known for trying to live up to its name. Jimmy interviews Garrett Walsh upon the release of the Oscar-winning director from prison after spending seven years incarcerated for the grim murder of a teenage actress. The most interesting point in the exchange occurs when Walsh, still insisting he is innocent, informs the journalist that he has written the screenplay for a movie about the real incident.

Cynical Jimmy assumes that either Garret is in denial or like every other convict just says he is innocent until someone murders Walsh and his screenplay "The Fall Guy" turns up missing. Unable to resist a follow-up story, Jimmy cynically works the underside of the movie industry compelled to learn the truth that he begins to believe never surfaced in the injustice of a courtroom.

SCAVENGER HUNT is a Hollywood noir those sub-genre fans will appreciate because of the deep nature of the key players. For instance, the antihero is sort of a modern Sam Spade combining deep-rooted cynicism with a strong moral fiber. The support cast such as his unsure "partner" and a kick butt policewoman provides depth to understanding Jimmy. Ironically the readers will know who did what before the reporter solves the two deaths, but the audience will fully relish the engaging return of this protagonist. (see FLINCH).

Harriet Klausner

I almost didn't bother reading past the first chapter or two of this book because the writing is so sub-par compared to what I normally read. Now, this guy's no Dean Koontz or Danielle Steele (I give him much more credit than that), but this book is just simply not well written. Someone needs to remind Mr Ferrigno about the guideline "show, don't tell." I'm not criticizing the book because he didn't always write in a showing manner -- that turns out books that are crummy as well. Unfortunately, a significant chunk of the book is ALL tell and that makes Amy an unhappy camper. Instead of showing that a character was x, y, or z, Mr Ferrigno just flat out tells us. Every. single. time. That's lazy!

Aside from a plague of telling, there're also lots of places in the book where the narration is totally stilted and seems very forced. If Mr Ferrigno was trying to imitate the popular "chop" style of newspaper ledes with several long wordy sentences and then a very staccato finishing sentence, he failed. It merely looked like he didn't know what he was doing. There are other issues, and in one case the author uses the wrong character name! The dialog is mostly good, but I don't think there's enough differentiation between the different characters' manner of speaking. I think in lots of places you could swap around the names and you'd never know the difference.

Now, you're wondering why I gave it four stars, then. (If I could, it'd be a 3.5, but I'm feeling generous.) Because the story is killer. Sometimes you read a book and love it just for the story, not the writing. Sometimes you read a book and love it just for the writing because the story's no good. This is definitely one of the former, but worth your time, especially if you love twisty plots -- unless, of course, you're even more of a writerly nitpicker than myself.