Hollywood Tough

Yes, it's true. Shane and Alexa are back in action, now married and living in Shane's small house in Venice CA with Shane's son Chooch. Alexa's long time friend Nora Bishop is getting married, and after a series of bad boyfriends she has finally landed Farrell Champion, big name movie producer. When Alexa and Shane attend a party splattered with big name stars at Farrell's house, Shane runs into a no-name street grifter from the streets named Nicky Marcella. Nicky claims to be running a legitimate movie production company named Cine-Roma, and also claims to be partnered with Champion. He asks Shane for a favor in return for all the informing he had done in the past for LAPD, namely, find a girl named Carol White that Nicky wanted to star in his next movie. Alexa is called away from the party for a big-time gang shooting, and as Shane is leaving separately, he overhears Farrell mentioning something about poisoning his two previous wives. Shane proceeds to find Carol, a used up junkie selling her body for fixes, and also discovers a strange plot to overtake the IATSE union by a mobster named Dennis Valentine from back east. When Carol is found brutally murdered, her death touches Shane deep inside, bring him face to face with the demons that keep him on the police force. Shane realizes that somehow, Nicky, Dennis, Farrell, and the gang shootings are related, and vows to avenge Carol's useless death by discovering the truth behind the bizarre mob connections in the glamorous world of show business. While Cannell's `The Viking Funeral' took a turn into the darker side of existence, `Hollywood Tough' makes up for it by skirting along an almost comedic edge of the seedier side of the movie industry. There's a script that makes no sense to be purchased from a Scientology-type religious fanatic, the movie star Michael Fallon who has so many phobias he has to track them on paper, a producer named Paul Lubick who's ego is only outsized by the massive redwood trees he imports for a ceiling shot, and Nicky Marcella's buzz-word wanna-be actions. This time Shane may have bitten off more than he can chew, and as he slides into his own undercover world of glamour and glitz, he realizes the seductress's pull of the lifestyle and how close he finds himself submitting to its temptations. Also introduced in `Hollywood Tough' is Chooch's girlfriend Delfina, who to me turned out to be disappointingly shallow in comparison to the other brightly painted characters from the story. Cannell again uses words to graphically sketch a rolling video in my head, the plot folding and twisting around one of my favorite book-cops of all. A fast and energetic read, don't miss out on the Shane Scully books, The Tin Collectors, The Viking Funeral, and now Hollywood Tough. Enjoy!

My New Year's resolution was to read new authors. I didn't want to give up old authors, but I felt that I wanted to look for great reads, whether for entertainment or enlightenment. I have so far kept that resolution. The only one I ever kept, probably because it was so pleasurable. I've liked most of Steven J. Cannell's television shows, but for some reason never had read his novels. Thank goodness I read HOLLYWOOD TOUGH because it was certainly a pleasurable, funny and thoughtful.Shane Scully is due back on the LAPD after sick leave from his last caper. His wife Alexa, who is also on the force, has a friend, Nora, who is marrying a high profile Hollywood type. Through a chance comment by the fiancé, a run-in with a former informant, and the death of a woman, Scully in an undercover sting operation gets involved in making a Hollywood flick. The Hollywood scenarios are hilarious, but at the same time give us insight into the way films are made. Another converging storyline regarding Scully's son Cooch and his Mexican gang affiliation is harrowing and sad.I everything about the book - language, fast and modern; characters, well fleshed out; and the way the disparate plot points come together to make a unified and satisfying whole. I plan on reading more Cannell in the future. It's a pleasure.

The newest entry into the series featuring Shane Scully, HOLLYWOOD TOUGH, has Scully & his beautiful wife, Alexa entangled in the world of Tinsel Town heavy hitters and wanna-bees as they set up a sting to trap a mobster. This highly entertaining book offers an insider's look at the film industry with well plotted cops and robbers sequences and action thrills for the most hard-boiled fans as well as subtle humor that hits the mark with the similarities between Hollywood and the mafia. Highly RECOMMEDED

Stephen J. Cannell would have an impressive resume even if he had never decided to try his hand at writing novels. His tracks are all over television. Cannell has created more than forty television series and it is almost impossible to channel surf at night without running into one of his celluloid children, be it The Rockford Files, The Commish or The 'A' Team. I fully expect to turn on the television one night and find myself watching a new network called The Cannell Channel. Hmmm...wait a minute, while I trademark that. Anyway, Cannell has also been racking up an ever- and always-impressive list of novels. I was amazed to discover that HOLLYWOOD TOUGH, his latest, is also his eighth. It's hard to believe but he's working on his own shelf as well --- he certainly deserves one.Cannell has carved his own niche in the adventure market with titles that include THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP and RIDING THE SNAKE. THE TIN COLLECTORS and THE VIKING FUNERAL, his last two novels, however, have featured Shane Scully, an LAPD detective who has had his ups and downs. Scully returns once again in HOLLYWOOD TOUGH. Nora Bishop, the best friend of Scully's wife, Alexa, is engaged to Farrell Champion, an A-List movie director who appears ready to give Bishop the happiness she has so long sought. However, at an engagement party for the couple, Scully overhears Champion make an offhand, seemingly joking remark about the deaths of his two ex-wives. Scully's cop instincts are aroused and, against his wife's wishes, he begins investigating Champion. He soon finds that Champion appears to be a man without a past, someone who seemingly materialized out of nowhere.At the same time, Scully discovers that a New Jersey mobster is attempting to infiltrate the Hollywood film industry's union. Scully, in order to draw the mobster into revealing his real reason for coming to Hollywood, sets up an elaborate sting operation that, in addition to being an extremely interesting plot vehicle, permits Cannell to educate his readers into the whys, hows and wherefores of film production. Cannell does an excellent job of concisely explaining the complex world of film deals, as well as the studio politics that go into the creation of the films that are coming to a Cineplex near you. These same studio politics have Scully's sting operation soon spiraling out of control, both creatively and financially. Scully also is having difficulty with his son, Chooch, who seems to have secrets that involve an L.A. Gang leader. As Scully and Alexa are drawn deeper into the sting operation and Chooch's behavior draws him into danger, Cannell keeps the suspense level high and maintains for the reader a maximum interest level from beginning to end, making HOLLYWOOD TOUGH, as with Cannell's seven previous novels, impossible to put down.Cannell, with HOLLYWOOD TOUGH, continues to demonstrate that he is a master of whatever media he should choose to partake. Certainly the world of suspense literature is richer for h

"A fine mess you've got me in", the chief of LAPD might have said to Shane Scully, who has been authorized to set up a phony film production company, at LAPD expense, as an elaborate sting to bring down a Mafia wiseguy who's trying to take over the Hollywood craft unions. As the budget on the film spins wildly out of control, and Shane is confronted with the insane egos of Hollywood agents, actors, writers, directors and studio executives, the book gets very funny as well as suspenseful and full of surprises. Hollywood Tough is a must read for all crime novel addicts!