Shakedown Beach: A Mystery [Hardcover]

Eric Dezenhall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

THE GOVERNOR: "Rebound" Rothman -- married, family-values New Jersey Republican with White House fantasies, a terrible secret, and a controversial position on young interns: He's for 'em.

THE TART: Simone Lava, the voluptuous Miss Little Egg Harbor Township. Rebound keeps her hidden away in Atlantic City's seedy Celebrity Motel where she practices waving like a First Lady -- a title she's been promised, if she'll just lay low during election season.

THE FIXER: Jackie Disaster, an ex-boxer who runs the Jersey shore's most ruthless damage-control firm. Jackie digs up the macabre truth about the governor.

THE POLLSTER: Jonah Eastman, maverick political strategist raised by his mobster grandfather, who gave Rebound his start. Jonah knows only one thing can save the congenitally deceitful governor: A whopping, heartfelt lie.

Shakedown Beach rips open the slats of the Atlantic City boardwalk to impart the big lesson of American politics: When forced to look into one's soul and confront the painful truths of murder, corruption and sexual depravity, don't be a schmuck -- hire the nastiest operatives money can buy and duck, dodge and spin to November.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Crisis management guru Dezenhall packs his second political mystery (after 2003's Jackie Disaster) with lots of action and plenty of colorful characters, like pollster Jonah Eastman, whose family connections to gangsters make it hard for him to get respectable work. Jonah is working for the Republican governor of New Jersey, Gardner Rothman, aka Rebound because of his stint with the Philadelphia 76ers. Rebound, who likes to hold meetings while he's sitting on the toilet, is running for a U.S. Senate seat and has a large lead in the polls. Yet he's begun acting as though he expects a bombshell to explode at any moment, and it's up to Jonah and Chief Willie Thundercloud, a onetime pro wrestler who now does damage control for several shady enterprises, to find out why. Dezenhall can write hilarious and brilliant descriptions, and can restate the obvious in fresh ways. "That Tappo's activities were illegal was of no matter because we were now living in the Arthur Andersen age of disclosure, where 'trust' and 'empowerment' in criminal endeavors were key to making the mob an instrument of social equity," Jonah says of a mobster known as Tappo the Clown. Sharp writing like that and some lively, unexpected plotting go a long way to making up for an excess of cute nicknames.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

This sequel to Money Wanders (2002) finds political consultant and damage-control expert Jonah Eastman working for the governor of New Jersey, Gardner "Rebound" Rothman. Up for reelection, Rebound, a family values Republican, is comfortably ahead in the polls, but he is putting pressure on Jonah to dig up as much dirt on his opponent as he can find. Why is the governor acting like he is about to lose, when he is 15 points ahead of his opponent? What is he hiding? And how much trouble is Jonah going to get in when he starts looking for answers? Like Money Wanders, this novel features deft comedy mixed with realistic characters and plenty of behind-the-scenes political shenanigans (like his protagonist, Dezenhall is a noted political consultant and damage-control expert). There is a little Ross Thomas in the way Dezenhall mixes thriller plot elements with political satire, but there's also an over-the-top absurdity here that will appeal to fans of Carl Hiaasen and, especially, Tim Dorsey's very similar Orange Crush (2001). David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Minotaur Books; 1st edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312307721
• ISBN-13: 978-0312307721
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,047,275 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Eric Dezenhall is an author and damage control expert based in Washington, D.C. He is the CEO of Dezenhall Resources, a nationally recognized high-stakes communications firm. He frequently lectures in academic and business circles, and regularly appears as a damage control expert in the international media. He has appeared on network television and radio outlets including NPR, CNN, FOX, CNBC, and MSNBC; and has been quoted in publications including Fortune, USA Today, Forbes, and the Washington Post. He has written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today and is a regular contributor to the Daily Beast and Huffington Post.

Eric is the author of eight books, including two non-fiction texts on crisis communications and corporate witch hunts, entitled Damage Control: How to Get the Upper Hand When Your Business is Under Attack (Portfolio, 2007) and Nail 'Em! Confronting High Profile Attacks on Celebrities and Businesses (Prometheus Books, 1999), both of which have been widely cited in business, media and academic circles. He is also the author of six novels: Money Wanders (St. Martin's, 2002), Jackie Disaster (Minotaur, 2003), Shakedown Beach (St. Martin's, 2004), Turnpike Flameout (St. Martin's, 2006) and Spinning Dixie (St. Martin's, 2007). His sixth novel, The Devil Himself (Thomas Dunne, St. Martin's), which deals with the collaboration between the U.S. Navy and organized crime during World War II to secure American ports from Nazi attack, will be published in July 2011.

As an investigative writer, Eric wrote articles about the newly discovered diaries of the late mobster Meyer Lansky, which appeared in the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, the Baltimore Sun, The New Republic, and Ethical Corporation. A documentary he co-produced on organized crime aired on the Discovery Channel.

Eric is a graduate of Dartmouth College, where he studied political science and the news media. He serves as a Trustee of the Institute for Responsible Citizenship, an organization devoted to fostering educational and career opportunities for outstanding young African-American men. Eric was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition. He lives near Washington, D.C., with his family.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific look at modern day image making, May 27, 2004

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Shakedown Beach: A Mystery (Hardcover)

New Jersey Governor "Rebound" Rothman runs for the senate with plans to go for the White House next. However, Rebound has three-decade-old skeletons in his closet. He has hidden away one female intern, former township beauty queen winner and All American bimbo Simone Lava, in Atlantic City's Celebrity Motel, run down since the first Johnson Administration. . However, someone films Rebound's tryst proclivities.

Rebound hires pollster Jonah Eastman to fix his senate run. Jonah handed Rebound the governorship when he painted the opponent as causing a hurricane the size of Asia that destroyed rural South Jersey (do not laugh; there really is a rural Jersey). Spinning the assignation film is easy. Dealing with Rebound's support of riverboat gambling in light of a credibility gap involving crooked casino owners is complex because investigative reporter Barri "Barium Enema" Embry needs political exposés to connive his way to cross the Hudson. Jonah brings in the troops, damage control expert Chief Willie Thundercloud and nonagenarian former mob enforcer Irv the Curve to spin a tale that Machiavelli would appreciate.

As with JACKIE DISASTER, SHAKEDOWN BEACH is a terrific look at modern day image making that our leaders spend fortunes on to include painting the opponent in a bad light. Truth is meaningless as Jonah and his associates know that for Rebound to win they must provide an Atlantic Ocean size lie or two about their client and his opponent. Witty, humorous, but in many ways frightening, the story line will shake readers as they realize Madison Avenue not oil runs the country. Eric Dezenhall makes New Jersey the spin capital of the world with a tale well worth reading especially with the election coming soon.

Harriet Klausner

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HOTAND SOPHISTICATED, June 28, 2004

By 

richard mester (newtown square, pa USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Shakedown Beach: A Mystery (Hardcover)

Jonah Eastman, a can do political operative had a whopping problem:a candidate who wont tell him the truth,a half wit trying to kill him and an election he must win.When his philandering client Rebound Rothman switches his position on riverboat gambling Jonah gets the picture_someone has some very damaging photos of Rebound.
What Jonah has going for him is the wisdom passed down from his mob grandfather, Mickey Price.He calls in Chief Willie Thundercloud,an ex wrestler with a bunch of local muscle, and Willie runs interference while Jonah uncovers,literally,the Governors secret_a molten tart named Simone Lava who the Governor has stashed in a lovers lane motel practically under the Atlantic City Boardwalk.While the scheming Governor demands that Jonah trash his opponent, an uptight WASP named Digby Stahl,Jonah suspects that Governor Rothmans problems with Simone Lavar are only the tip of the volcano.Maybe the Governor needs a get out of jail free card.Working in concert with a hot shot reporter known collquially as Barium Enema_Jonah delves into the long ago death of Nora Kelly,a one time flame of Governor Rothman that prematurely burned out.Piece by piece Jonah is drawn into a twenty year old mystery of murder ,lust, ambition and retribution that he must solve to salvage his own self esteem and save his sinking marriage.Relentlessly with a killer on his tail Jonah pursues the truth ,figuring if it wont set him free at least it will provide sufficient cash to take Rebound off his back and an honor a few outstading markers.
Written with the pulse of Atlantic City beating beneath the surface,SHAKEDOWN BEACH,is an extrordinary tale of good and evil providing readers an adrenalin rush as powerful , provacative and surprising as a dive off the Atlantic City Pier.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Terrific Read for Summer and the Election Season, June 23, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Shakedown Beach: A Mystery (Hardcover)

Shakedown Beach has it all: mobsters, crooked politicians, a true 21st Century Femme Fatale, and-- just for good measure-- a former pro wrestler turned private eye that might just be Dezenhall's best character yet!

Character development really is Dezenhall's strength... he captures everything that's good and bad in human nature, adds a touch of "Jersey" and mixes it all together to form a cast so real that you will feel like you are literally "down the shore" as they say in the Garden State.

This book belongs on anyone's summer reading list, and what a great primer for the upcoming election season!