Review Harold Dodge, overweight and pushing 50 hard, loves woman and cars. So when the extremely striking Marianna Perado interrupts his acquisition of a real cream puff--an '86 Maxima that he knows he can slap a $100 detail job on, then resell for an extra $1000--and asks for his help in getting her trade-in back from the hotshot dealer he used to work for, Harold just can't say no. Within minutes, he's up to his ears in dangerous deals and scams that escalate into a carnival of terror. If Florida's Carl Hiassen moved to the seamier side of Los Angeles, this first novel might well be the kind of thing he'd come up with. But former journalist and television writer Philip Reed has already claimed the territory, and is at work on his second mystery about Harold Dodge. From Library Journal This jaunty, humorous, and captivating first novel features a cast of quirky California characters and their misadventures. Lush-bodied Marianna picks on middle-aged co-worker Harold?who wrote a tell-all book about used cars?for help when a car salesman cheats her. Thus begins an itinerant tale of scam and counterscam, car distribution corruption, tender-hearted strippers, attempted murder, accidental murder, car chases, outwitted hoodlums, vituperative ex-wives, pot-smoking brothers, and incipient love. Quick shifts of scene steadily increase the suspense, but this is one of those books that ends too soon. Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Bird Dog

REED, Philip

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Hodder&Stoughton

Low Rider

Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd (Cambridge Opera Handbooks)

Billy Budd, based on Herman Melville's nautical allegory, is one of Britten's most challenging operas. This comprehensive guide considers the work from both literary and musical viewpoints. Melville's novella is discussed, as is the interpretation given to the novella by the librettists E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier. A detailed synopsis guides the reader through the musical and dramatic action of the opera and in a chapter devoted to the music, Britten's distinctive technique of tonal symbolism is analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of his musical response to the dramatic suggestions of Melville's story. The most important critical writings on Billy Budd are represented by an expanded version of Donald Mitchell's 1979 notebook on the opera. A final chapter charts the opera's stage history and fluctuating critical reception.

Arts & Photography

Cooke, Mervyn

Music

Cambridge University Press

Letters from a Life: Benjamin Britten Volume 1 1923-1939, Volume 2 139-45: Selected Letters and Diaries: 1923-45 v. 1 & 2

Mitchell, Dr Donald

History

Faber and Faber

When Harold Dodge agrees to help gorgeous Marianna Perado get out of a rip-off deal at Joe Covo's dealership, he suddenly lands himself in a mess of trouble, involving ruthless repo men, fast-talking salesmen, the FBI, criminal intrigue, and murder. A first novel.

Literature & Fiction

United States

Atria

After a tantalizing woman asks him to help her expose some crooked car dealers who happen to be his co-workers, Harold Dodge finds himself careering down a Los Angeles highway with a corpse in his trunk. Reprint.

Bird Dog (A Car Noir Thriller)

Pocket Star

"Defined by a brilliant economy of style, a no-nonsense world view, and a lack of cliché....This bleak, funny...tale of used-car corruption, murder, and sex in a seamy, unremitting L.A. combines unlikely, grittily real characters with tough, clean prose," raved The Boston Book Review of the author's debut thriller, Bird Dog. Now, Reed brings back hardluck L.A. hero Harold Dodge in the eagerly awaited sequel to his "savage but jovial black comedy...[and] formidable set of wheels" (Literary Review). Life continues to throw Harold Dodge some wicked curves. But sometimes, the more wicked the curve the better. Take Vikki Covo, widow of Harold's former boss at the Joe Covo car dealership. She's a blonde, she's beautiful, and she's angling for a million-dollar settlement on her husband's life insurance policy. Vikki's a curve in the shape of a dollar sign, a woman Harold could learn to love almost as much as he loves his '64 Chevy Impala. If only she handled as well.... The deal: if Harold negotiates the insurance settlement, he'll get ten percent, plus Vikki's everlasting gratitude and affection. The problem: the police are treating Joe Covo's death as a suicide, meaning no payout on the insurance. And when Harold suggests the cops rule it a homicide instead, they're all too willing to oblige, figuring him as their number-one suspect. Staring a murder rap in the face, Harold must descend into a rogue's gallery of low-riding gangbangers, car thieves, chop-shop operators, and collection agents. Mixing business with pleasure is always a risky affair, and in this case Harold's in so deep he's getting the bends. From cowboy cops to jealous lovers, just about everybody wants a piece of him. Worst of all, the bad guys have sunk to a new low: they've stolen his Impala and stripped it for parts. Harold's going to find his Chevy and put it back together...even if it means going to hell and back in Vikki's four-cylinder rice-burner. From the moment the key is turned in its ignition, Low Rider takes off on a supercharged, high-speed adventure you'll wish would never end. "Reed does for low-life L.A. what Hiaasen does for Florida -- turns it into a seriocomic carnival of suspense" (Publishers Weekly).

LOW RIDER

Mystery

Harold Dodge, the hard-luck hero of Bird Dog, returns in a darkly comic crime novel, set in Los Angeles, as the hapless accomplice of a blonde bombshell trying to capitalize on her husband's life insurance policy. Reprint.

Pocket

Mother Goose and Nursery Rhymes

Children's Books

Atheneum

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