Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Plot Summary: Covergirl heiress Leigh Tiller is kidnapped and held for ransom. Her father, Kip Tiller sends his favorite hitman to take out the kidnappers AND his daughter. Meanwhile, a small art guerilla group discovers where Leigh is being held and decides to spring her themselves. Once Leigh is in league with the Strategic Art Defense, they commence on a five day three city exhibition of eye-opening illegal art displays designed by their brilliant leader, Laser. In hot pursuit is a colorful parade of goombas who are busy trying to kill Leigh and each other.
I was so ready for this to crash and burn that I'm kind of in awe that it didn't, and furthermore, it even has a happy ending! What a surprise. For me, this book calls to mind the kind of insane comedy found in movies like Raising Arizona or A Fish Called Wanda. Everyone has a few loose screws, so insanity becomes the standard here and it's just a question of how nuts are they?
The murder and mayhem run freely, like booze at an open bar wedding, and there's no real mystery to solve. This book is more like a fugitive thriller, with the Strategic Art Defense guys barely a step ahead of their numerous foes on a cross-country chase from New York to Las Vegas.
The different sets of goons that Kip Tiller has on speed dial are so outrageous they should package and sell them as action figures. There's the mutilated doctor known as The Serologist, the biker chick from hell with a Dolly Parton rack, the prepubescent gang-bangers known as the Sultans, and the bazooka toting Bison brothers.
The group that runs with Leigh and Laser are a bit hard to pin down individually, although some of the best scenes involve this posse of misfits. I loved it when Cody lists his favorite places to meet women who will get him laid. That's some funny stuff when he's discoursing on how a trendy Target shopper is different from a brawny Costco employee in bed (or on a pallet of Grisham novels).
This was a strange story that entertained me quite well and had everything I'm looking for - comedy, violence, misdirection, romance, and adventure - but the style is distinctly unique. This little fish is swimming far outside the mainstream, but it doesn't care in the slightest.
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Leigh Tiller has just been kidnapped. The beautiful, ineffably cool New York socialite is being held by a group of mentally ill terrorists who've demanded millions in ransom from Leigh's wealthy father. There's just one problem: Kip Tiller doesn't want Leigh back. He wants her dead. And he's hired The Serologist - a psychotic, patchwork-scarred hit man - to make sure it happens. Leigh's unlikely saviour is Laser Mechanic, the coolly brilliant leader of the guerrilla art collective, Strategic Art Defence. Now, Laser, his team of highly trained artists, and Leigh are on their way to Las Vegas, running from The Serologist and the cops...and into a head-on collision with several contract killers - the Gashes, vicious girl bikers, the Black Sultans, adolescent gang-bangers, and the Bisons, a pair of sadistic, meth-addled brothers - looking to make a fast fortune. The outcome will be bloody, brutal, bizarre - and utterly unexpected.
