Robert Ferrigno continues to surprise. In 2001's darkly mesmeric Flinch, he not only delivered his usual trove of offbeat bad guys, but finally created a protagonist who was equally arresting: Jimmy Gage, a trouble-seeking reporter for the tabloidish SLAP magazine. The sequel, Scavenger Hunt, takes Ferrigno one evolutionary step further, its tale of ambition and guilt in Southern California driven by dense, circuitous plotting, rather than the familiar emotional tension between a flawed male lead and some treacherously captivating femme fatale.

"I want you to write an article about me, about what I'm working on. I even have a title for you: 'The Most Dangerous Screenplay in Hollywood,'" says Garrett Walsh, an egotistical, Oscar-winning film director who, after spending seven years in the slammer for killing teenage actress-aspirant Heather Grimm, now tells Gage he was set up, possibly by the husband of an unnamed "good wife" with whom he'd been having an affair. Walsh plans to expose this neat frame in a movie script, and wants Gage to publicize his efforts before anyone can stop him. The reporter is dubious--until Walsh is found dead in a koi pond and his "dangerous screenplay" goes missing. Intent on learning whether the director was murdered, Gage will first have to identify the "good wife," swap body blows with an aging action star, resolve questions surrounding a too-helpful retired cop with a doughnut jones, and determine if Heather Grimm was really as innocent as she appeared. Although there are several throwaway scenes in Scavenger Hunt (including one in which Gage and his cop girlfriend try to nab a "lover's lane" rapist), they don't detract seriously from this often edgy, sometimes humorous yarn, composed in a style that's pleasantly less restrained than several of Ferrigno's earlier thrillers. --J. Kingston Pierce


From Library Journal
Jimmy Gage is a reporter for Slap magazine, a tell-all entertainment rag in Los Angeles. He's young, curious, and pushy, with a nose for news that gets him close to the "in people" and even closer to real trouble. A party prank scavenger hunt, devised by his publisher, gets Jimmy face time with Garret Walsh, a has-been director fresh out of prison for murdering an ing nue starlet. Needing to "borrow" an Academy Award statue for the scavenger hunt, Jimmy goes to Walsh's ramshackle trailer and gets caught up in his attempt to break back into the biz with a script he calls "the most dangerous screenplay in Hollywood." Two weeks later, Walsh is floating dead in a nearby koi pond, and Jimmy questions the police report that lists the death as accidental. On the pretext of researching an article on Walsh's rise and fall, Jimmy tails the police and does quite a bit of investigating on his own. His publisher is indulgent, sensing a tantalizing lead article for his next issue until this "scavenger hunt" turns deadly and Jimmy ends up at the top of someone else's list. Ranging up and down the sometimes glitzy, sometimes grubby Southern California coast, this latest noir thriller by Ferrigno (Horse Latitudes; Dead Silent) is slender, fast-paced, and populated by colorful characters who run the gamut from high rollers to the dregs of Hollywood wannabes. Edgy and darkly humorous, it will fit nicely into collections alongside Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, and Jonathan Kellerman.--Susan Clifford Braun, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Jimmy Gage, the engaging antihero featured in Ferrigno's widely acclaimed Flinch (2001), returns in another superbly plotted and tautly executed thriller set in the glittering wasteland of contemporary L.A. Paroled convict and former golden boy Hollywood director Garrett Walsh attempts to convince Slap magazine reporter and film critic Jimmy to write an article on his comeback screenplay, a tell-all script about the murder Garrett was falsely convicted of committing. Less than a month later, Walsh is found floating facedown in a tropical fish pond. Convinced that word had leaked out about the jaw- and name-dropping script, Jimmy decides to investigate. Risking his own life, he pits himself and his wits against powerful moguls, crooked police officers, and monumental egos to set the record straight. In a world where few can be trusted, Jimmy stands out as an edgy straight shooter who "can't stand to see the bad guys walking off into the sunset whistling a happy tune." Full of enough twists and turns to satisfy any movie producer, this darkly comic romp is a wildly entertaining ride through the morally bankrupt underbelly of counterfeit Hollywood glitz. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
“Ferrigno can make you afraid, he can make you laugh, and he can keep you turning the pages.” –The Washington Post

“Captivating. . . . Momentum that doesn’t let up until the last page. . . . Scavenger Hunt boasts a surprising, fast-paced plot and a host of memorable characters.” –The Oregonian

“A nicely plotted tour through the dense fringes of Hollywood, with an occasional torque. . . . Ferrigno is a nimble pro. . . . Assured reading pleasure.” -–Houston Chronicle

“A brisk trot through SoCal’s odd and entertaining landscape, informed by a mix of unpretentious smarts, muscular prose, and darkly funny observation.” –Seattle Times


Review
?Ferrigno can make you afraid, he can make you laugh, and he can keep you turning the pages.? ?The Washington Post

?Captivating. . . . Momentum that doesn?t let up until the last page. . . . Scavenger Hunt boasts a surprising, fast-paced plot and a host of memorable characters.? ?The Oregonian

?A nicely plotted tour through the dense fringes of Hollywood, with an occasional torque. . . . Ferrigno is a nimble pro. . . . Assured reading pleasure.? -?Houston Chronicle

?A brisk trot through SoCal?s odd and entertaining landscape, informed by a mix of unpretentious smarts, muscular prose, and darkly funny observation.? ?Seattle Times

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Jimmy Gage is a reporter for Slap magazine in Los Angeles - "a troublemaker by trade and inclination, with fast hands and too much curiosity for his own good. Fight or flight, it made no difference anymore."" "This time around, it's definitely fight." While on an L.A. party-scene scavenger hunt, Jimmy meets Garrett Walsh, a former boy-wonder director who has just been released from prison after serving seven years for the drug-rage murder of a seemingly innocent teenage girl. Out of prison and out for justice, Walsh chooses Jimmy to help him clear his name by getting the right people to read his newest script, Fall Guy, the story of the setup that sent him away. Walsh dubs it "The Most Dangerous Screenplay in Hollywood," and apparently he's right: two weeks after they first meet, Jimmy finds him dead. But there is something that rings true in Walsh's story and something that rings false in the police report of accidental death, so Jimmy sets out after the truth. But is this his scavenger hunt, or is he at the top of someone else's "find-at-all-costs" lists?

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine - Don McLeese

Mystery writer Ferrigno (The Horse Latitudes, Heart Breaker) has yet to receive the popular acclaim he deserves. The author's seventh novel finds him at the top of his game. Probing the seamier side of Hollywood (is there any other side?), the novel concerns an eccentric director named Garrett Walsh, who is notorious for having followed an Oscar triumph with a conviction for murdering a teenage seductress. Upon his release from prison, he attempts to peddle a screenplay that suggests he was framed. "It's a good script," he tells ace scandal-sheet reporter Jimmy Gage, last seen in Ferrigno's Flinch. "So good it may even get me killed." An unlikely hero, Gage sets out to investigate Walsh's claim. As he makes his way through a moral cesspool, Gage encounters his doppelgänger, a villain whose identity is revealed to the reader long before Gage realizes he himself has become the target of murder, not merely the investigator of one. While there are plenty of twists on the way to resolving the whodunit, Ferrigno's plot is distinguished by a combination of caustic social commentary and black comedic irony.

Publishers Weekly

Ferrigno (Horse Latitudes) delivers another devastating-and entertaining-critique of celebrity culture in his darkly comic suspense story set among the players and would-be players of contemporary Hollywood. Jimmy Gage, a reporter for the ferociously dishy SLAP magazine (and the protagonist of Ferrigno's previous novel Flinch), stumbles on an explosive story while interviewing Garrett Walsh, an Oscar-winning Hollywood director who just finished serving seven years in prison for the murder of teenage wanna-be actress Heather Grimm. Walsh swears he's not guilty and tells Gage he's written a movie about what really happened, The Most Dangerous Screenplay in Hollywood. Gage is skeptical, but when Walsh turns up dead (and the screenplay missing), he goes to work to find out the truth. Ferrigno explores the sordid underworlds of Tinseltown and the LAPD through a number of sharply etched characters, such as twin aspiring actresses Tamra and Tonya Monelli, who keep losing parts to their blonde colleagues; Gage's insecure slacker sidekick Rollo ("If you were a woman, would you find me sexually attractive?") and the memorably tough policewoman Helen Katz. Gage is himself a compelling character whose cynicism is balanced by a real moral center. Walsh's death proves to be a mystery of real complexity, involving all the baser motives-greed, lust, ambition-as well as a noble one: love. Unfortunately, the resolution becomes obvious to the reader long before Gage figures it out, but this insightful-and often very funny-novel is still a pleasure to read. (Jan. 7) Forecast: Booksellers might recommend Ferrigno to fans of Michael Connelly and Elmore Leonard, with happy results. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Jimmy Gage is a reporter for Slap magazine, a tell-all entertainment rag in Los Angeles. He's young, curious, and pushy, with a nose for news that gets him close to the "in people" and even closer to real trouble. A party prank scavenger hunt, devised by his publisher, gets Jimmy face time with Garret Walsh, a has-been director fresh out of prison for murdering an ing nue starlet. Needing to "borrow" an Academy Award statue for the scavenger hunt, Jimmy goes to Walsh's ramshackle trailer and gets caught up in his attempt to break back into the biz with a script he calls "the most dangerous screenplay in Hollywood." Two weeks later, Walsh is floating dead in a nearby koi pond, and Jimmy questions the police report that lists the death as accidental. On the pretext of researching an article on Walsh's rise and fall, Jimmy tails the police and does quite a bit of investigating on his own. His publisher is indulgent, sensing a tantalizing lead article for his next issue until this "scavenger hunt" turns deadly and Jimmy ends up at the top of someone else's list. Ranging up and down the sometimes glitzy, sometimes grubby Southern California coast, this latest noir thriller by Ferrigno (Horse Latitudes; Dead Silent) is slender, fast-paced, and populated by colorful characters who run the gamut from high rollers to the dregs of Hollywood wannabes. Edgy and darkly humorous, it will fit nicely into collections alongside Michael Connelly, Robert Crais, and Jonathan Kellerman. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 9/15/02.]-Susan Clifford Braun, Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, CA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews