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FROM THE PUBLISHER
A veteran filmmaker and novelist
now creates a sizzling noir set deep in the eye of the Hollywood
storm. In Earthquake Weather a natural disaster shakes
a city and an industry to their cores, revealing new layers of
deceit, desire, and deadly aggression.
Hollywood. The land of dreams
and schemes. Mark Hayes has a dream. To make movies. But that's
easier wished for than done. Years of frustrating career moves
have yielded little progress, and Mark now finds himself in a
dead-end job as a "creative executive" for the loathsome
producer Dexter Morton at Prescient Pictures, the hottest new
production company in town. A job like that could lead to big
things -- but Dexter Morton has no interest in promoting Mark's
ambitions. Then a major earthquake rocks Los Angeles and all
deals are off. And when Mark finds a body floating in Dexter's
pool he goes from D-Boy to murder suspect before he can say "three-picture
deal."
In the interest of self-preservation
Mark must find out who the true killer is before he is jailed
or becomes the next victim. The list of suspects is long: the
hot young screenwriter who has been fired from his own project,
the director of Prescient Pictures' most recent film who will
do anything for final cut, the re-write man who has been toiling
in anonymity for years because he passed forty ages ago, the
wanna-be actress who would do anything -- and anyone -- for stardom,
the blackmailing producer who knows more about the staff of Prescient
Pictures than anyone wants to admit.
As the noose tightens around
the guilty and innocent alike, tensions rise and the earth rumbles.
No one can trust the ground they walk on or the people they work
with. In a town where power and control can shift suddenly, everyone
wants credit for everything -- except, of course, murder.
PRAISE
FOR EARTHQUAKE WEATHER
"For a book that starts out page one with the unforgettable 1994 Northridge earthquake, you'd expect at least a little downtime in the next 290 pages. Not even close. Lankford's crime novel pulls the reader in from the start, focusing on the life of film studio development employee, Mark Hayes, and doesn't let go until the last chapter. Though his is a life that fails to revolve around much more than the studio itself-and his irascible, conniving boss, film exec Dexter Morton-it's a life worth telling about, nonetheless. An East coast transplant, Hayes has been in Los Angeles just long enough to build a love/hate relationship with the city. He loves what Hollywood has to offer (big houses, big movie budgets and-other peoples'-big paychecks) and hates the fact that none of those elements apply to him. But just when it seems like it might be his turn to experience some of these perks firsthand, things start looking awfully dark in his section of La-La Land.
As a filmmaker and novelist,
one could argue that there's no better person to produce this
type of story than Terrill Lee Lankford. Set entirely in mid-'90s
Los Angeles, Lankford paints a flawless picture of the famed
city from the San Fernando Valley to South Central. His characters
are vivid and entertaining, his description downright chilling
at times, and his vast knowledge and research of the "business"
apparent, down to the very last detail. Upon finishing the last
chapter of this mystery novel, only one thing left this reader
stumped. Which was scarier - the heartless, vindictive way in
which Hollywood was portrayed or the fact that every last bit
of it was true?"
Brandy
Colbert, Entertainment
Today
"There's no shortage of hatred
in the movie-town world of Terrill Lee Lankford's knowing and
atmospheric mystery-thriller "Earthquake Weather."
Hate seems to alternate with greed as the ruling passion in a
town where everyone is always on the make for a hot script, a
hit film, a career advantage or just a quick fix of drugs or
sex.
Where Hayes (or Lankford, really)
does earn his stripes is as a noteworthy guide - in the insider-outsider
Southern California tradition of many writers, from Nathanael
West through Chandler to Michael Connelly - to the dark side
of a city he loves to hate and can't help being a part of."
Tom
Nolan, Los Angeles Times
"Funny, irreverent and full of characters who are casualties
of the blind ambition of those who have marched over them, "Earthquake
Weather" should cure the starry-eyed who fancy they have
that sure-fire screenplay just ready to hit the page and the
screen."
Lin
Rolens, Santa Barbara News-Press
"Earthquake Weather is one of the major LA novels of the past twenty years and in many respects it's closer to The Player than any of the phony Porsche-noir
novels that have been over-celebrated by two decades of yuppie
reviewers. Yes, there's a murder and a mystery, but this is first
and foremost a mainstream novel--a work novel as the proletariat
critics of the Thirties called such books--showing you what a
capitalist enterprise looks like from the bottom up.
This is the best crime novel I've read in a long, long time,
a melancholy, true account of a lonely life not unlike the Philip
Marlowe's in The Long Goodbye.
As many of you know, I hate the
phrase "this novel transcends genre." I don't know
if it transcends or not and frankly I don't give a damn one way
or the other. But I'll tell you one thing. This guy is major.
And he's just started."
Ed
Gorman
"Lankford deserves rosettes
for avoiding nearly all the cliches of the LA suspense novel.
He starts big, with the 1994 earthquake, as Hollywood development
deals fall like the freeway and studios try to recover from the
disaster.
You'll never write a screenplay again after reading this."
Kirkus
(Starred review)
"Earthquake Weather is
one of the best novels about the dark heart of Hollywood I've
read. It's an insider's view with a perfect blend of the glitz,
grime, and desperate hope that keeps that heart beating. Watch
out -- when Terrill Lankford's writing about L.A., it's always
earthquake weather."
Michael
Connelly
"Earthquake Weather
is exactly what I expected from Terrill Lankford: a biting but
big-hearted look at the perils of the movie business. Part Raymond
Chandler and part Nathanael West, Earthquake Weather surfs
the curl of apocalypse with a casual grace. A cool, satisfying
ride."
T.
Jefferson Parker
"Terrill Lankford is one
of my favorite novelists. His writing isn't done with a word
processor; he uses a scalpel to peel back the dirty reality under
the veneer we call civilization. He has a perfect eye for detail
and the ability to actually make you nervous with anticipation.
When it comes to crime fiction, he's not writing on the cutting
edge; he is the cutting edge."
Joe
R. Lansdale
"In the hilarious and brutal
Earthquake Weather, Terrill Lankford has caught Hollywood
and pinned it wriggling to the corkboard like an enormous Death's
Head butterfly. The phrase Hollywood crime novel is redundant.
Nonetheless, Lankford has written a great one, a savagely funny
take on the right and wrong sides of the studio tracks in a time
and place not unlike our own. Some brave soul ought to make it
into a movie."
Scott
Phillips
"Filmmaker Lankford serves
up an insider's view of Hollywood in this entertaining crime
drama about a producer wannabe who gets ensnarled in a murder
plot... Lankford (Angry Moon) shows lively wit and characterizations,
and he shines in skewering the practices and personalities of
the film industry... a fast, fun read."
Publishers
Weekly
"... a biting satire of
Hollywood cast in the form of a murder mystery... that will have
readers shaking their heads in disbelief, all the while laughing
out loud. Earthquake Weather is the best Hollywood novel
since Michael Tolkin's The Player -- and a fine crime
story besides."
David
Montgomery, Chicago Sun Times
"... part of Lankford's
talent is the ability to keep us wondering if (his hero) is being
completely honest with us about his investigation into his late
boss' death. The other part, which makes his novel especially
compelling, is the way movie metaphors shape and color everything.
Natural disasters in Los Angeles are "star-studded events.
An Irwin Allen Production made flesh."... A mysterious neighbor
looks "like Catherine Deneuve in her glory days." And
my favorite: A film written by McCoy called "Student Chainsaw
Nurses" gets 3 1/2 stars from real critic Leonard Maltin
"due to its `drive-in purity on a global scale.'""
Dick
Adler, Chicago Tribune
"Terrill Lee Lankford has taken an insider's knowledge
of the West Coast movie industry, given it a twisted and entertaining
spin, and come up with Earthquake Weather, his third book...
and his first in seven years. During Lankford's literary hiatus,
he penned and produced films, with a directing credit or two
in the mix. That was all well and good, but a loss for the mystery-reading
public, because Lankford really has the chops for crime fiction."
Anthony
Rainone, January Magazine
"Fortunately, there is always
room for one more voice to show just how corrupt the making of
movie magic can be. Filmmaker Terrill Lee Lankford gives an insider's
view of the ruthlessness of making movies in... Earthquake
Weather (and) delivers a breathless pace that would play
well on the big screen."
Oline
H. Cogdill, The SouthFlorida Sun-Sentinel
Read an excerpt from "Earthquake
Weather"
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