Shafted [Paperback]

Mandasue Heller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007

Larry Logan is a small-time TV star with a mile-wide ego. Gutted when his latest show is axed, he's less than impressed when the only work he can get is fronting a fake game show -- actually an undercover police sting to entrap criminals. His reluctance evaporates when the show rockets his career back to prime time stardom. And when lovely, shy Stephanie enters his life he thinks he finally has it made. But Larry doesn't know how dangerous those criminals are. He shafted some dangerous men - and they want revenge.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Heller's wonderfully wicked revenge thriller, British TV host Larry Logan loses his job after he performs drunk on a children's charity telethon and, in an even dumber move, has a boozy fling with a 16-year-old female fan . Two years later, a desperate Larry agrees to host fake game show Gotcha! for American TV that's actually a police sting operation to catch real British felons, including notorious bail jumper Derek "Dex" Lewis. Manchester Insp. Bill Keeton persuades Larry to schmooze the slippery crook to lure him to the fake set. After the cops bust him, Dex vows vengeance, as does his teen daughter Molly, mom Nora, brother Patrick and ex-wife, Jane. Meanwhile, Dex's disgruntled girlfriend concocts a scheme to score secret payback. Suspense intersects brilliantly with savage pop culture satire as Heller (The Club) reveals just how twisted life can be when it connects with crimes of the head and heart. (Nov.)
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Review

'Mandasue has played a real blinder with this fantastic novel.' -- Martina Cole on FORGET ME NOT 'A glamorous nightclub hides a seedy underworld that Heller knows only too well.' -- Daily Express 20070615 'Alarming ... beguiling ... exhilarating.' -- Scotsman on THE FRONT 20070615 'Cracking page-turner ... a gritty compassionate account of life on the margins.' -- Manchester Evening News on FORGET ME NOT 20070615 'Sexy and slick.' -- Look on The Club 20070618 'Crammed with gangsters and glamour girls this is a sassy take on the usual crime thriller.' -- Woman on The Club 20070721 'Gripping ... powerful writing.' -- Scotland on Sunday on FORGET ME NOT 20070721

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton; First Edition edition (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0340899514
• ISBN-13: 978-0340899519
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,928,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars SHAFTED, BUT BY WHO?, October 1, 2010

By 

Barry McCanna (Normandy, France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shafted (Paperback)

I suppose I should have known better than to pick this up. There were three dead giveaways; first it was unread and cheap, secondly there was the author's twee Christian name, and thirdly there was the echo in the title of the awful Robert Kilroy-Silk. Had I not disregarded those portents, I would not have started reading an asinine plot, with feeble dialogue, and unconvincing characters.
Somebody out there may have a gripping story to tell about the low-life side of television gameshows, but this ain't it. As the opening line has it: "Aaaand cut!" And I have, at page 65, to be precise.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Story But You Can't Feel for The Victim After You're Made to Hate Him at the Start, February 23, 2008

By 

James N Simpson (Gold Coast, QLD Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Shafted (Hardcover)

Shafted is not a bad story. Set in Manchester England, we follow the life of up himself TV game show star Larry Logan who is apparently one the most handsome and desirable guys in the world and he knows it. The problem shafted has is that the first third of the books paints such as detrimental figure in Logan that you thoroughly dislike the guy so you feel no elation for his lucky break or empathy later on which the story really needs to work for him as a victim in the second two thirds. For the reader to get that empathy, Heller with Shafted probably needed to tone down Logan's strong ego character traits at the beginning or not included some or all of the extreme alcoholic abuse, indifference and lack of remorse to his work colleagues career plights due to his self centred actions or his ethics of not checking someone he takes home is of legal age and the like. Reading the final two thirds you know you are supposed to feel sorry for and be gunning for Larry but you just can't.

Shafted is the tale of a TV game show host who evades his minder to consume a bottle in the toilets before returning to the floor to wrap up an episode. His reprehensible druken actions leave the network with no choice but to spin what happened as a medication bungle. However the next day's newspaper which followed him out to a club that night tells the world Larry Logan is paedophile and hard drug user meaning even the most naive fan will not believe the show's propaganda. Larry is shown the door and as his career seems to be over. As the months go on his choice of alcohol to comfort him results in a meeting with some heavies who have orders to repossess and sell everything he owes to pay his debts. It looks like his apartment is next to go and he'll be living on the streets when his agent tells him a client is offering him a chance to host another game show to be watched by an American audience, only catch is the contestants are all wanted criminals!