Heartbreaker - Softcover

Robert Ferrigno

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099451794 ISBN 13: 9780099451792

Publisher: Gardners Books, 2003

Synopsis

Right on the edge of- love and death-When a psychopathic drug dealer forces Val to witness a cop's murder Val knows he is in deep trouble. The cop was his best friend and, like Val, one of the good guys. So Val, survival instincts on full alert, heads for California and a new identity. But when he meets Kyle, the perfect girl-next-door his survival instincts shut down as others take over - which means he doesn't see who is coming after him- or the deadly nature of Kyle's dysfunctional family-

About this title

Review:

You know you're in smart hands in this latest thriller by Robert Ferrigno because his character, ex-undercover cop Val Duran, appears on the television quiz show Jeopardy. His reasoning? To catch the attention of a dangerous adversary named Junior.

Val smiled, imagining Junior's expression when he saw the show. Junior taped every episode of Jeopardy. Half the dope dealers in south Florida were glued to the tube every afternoon, making bets, yelling at the contestants. Junior once shot out a forty-seven inch Mitsubishi over a missed answer.

Junior also killed Val's former partner and threatened his only living relative, his grandmother, Grace. Val takes the old woman with him from Miami, and they hide out in Southern California. Here, he plots some serious revenge on the Floridian villain. Complicating matters are a beautiful, troubled marine biologist named Kyle Abbott and her seriously dysfunctional wealthy family. There's also a pair of killer extortionists after the Abbott family's fortune--a gorgeous sociopath named Jackie and a monolithic Gulf War Syndrome victim named Dekker. They all start out as very nasty genre stereotypes, but end up, thanks to Ferrigno's marvelously deft touch, as understandable and even likable human beings. There are even a couple of fresh insights into the overused landscape of Los Angeles: "Even before dawn the freeways buzzed with ambition. It made him homesick for the sultry indolence of Miami, cruising down the A1A, windows rolled down so he could smell the oleander blooming along the median."

Other Ferrigno titles include Dead Man's Dance and Dead Silent. --Dick Adler

From the Publisher:

"As if invigorated by his move to a new publisher, Ferrigno has produced his best novel in years, a splendidly readable, cinematic thriller . . . The array of subplots and mixed motives should entice fans of Elmore Leonard and Ross Thomas. Ferrigno's complex edifice of wrongdoing rises to an ending that feels just right, and shows how far some racy characters will go in search of money--and for love."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Hearbreaker is a dark, comic tour-de-force. It's consistently and casually knockout, brutal, and hilarious. It's a hothouse flower with a wild sense of place and a wilder believability. Dig it and dig it now."
--James Ellroy, author of My Dark Places and L.A. Confidential

"I enjoyed it, and the farther I went in it, the more the story pulled me in . . . edgy, efficient, brutal and sometimes comical, with an unexpectedly moving love story."
--Craig Holden, author of Four Corners of the Night

About this edition

• Publisher: Gardners Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0099451794
• ISBN 13: 9780099451792
• Binding: Paperback