Review: Hollywood Hustle

Hollywood Hustle by Jon Lindstrom
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

1.5 Stars - rounded up because I finished it.

Well, the best I can say about this novel is that I finished it and that it was a fast read. I did manage to finish this book to see how the author pulled off a happily-ever-after-type storyline. And what a fairy tale it was, especially the ending!


Trigger warnings--- Heavy drug usage, multiple murders, kidnapping, incredibly bad plotting, and overly descriptive/wordy.

Since Mr.Lindstom is/was an actor, I can see why this book was filled with movie references, even if they seemed to be in there for really no reason at all. Yes, the character of Winston was an actor (never a star!), so we could expect a lot of references to the art.

I could not manage to feel anything for these characters - not sadness, which I should have felt based on the kidnapping, not horror of all of the deaths, nor did I find anything amusing, which I am sure we are supposed to have felt at times.

Since Winston's daughter had been kidnapped, this book was about him and his buddies getting her back. However, he goes about it in the stupidest ways possible. I don't even want to talk about what he and his pals do because it would spoil the book for those who want to read it.

*ARC supplied by the publisher Crooked Lane Books, the author, and NetGalley.

"Jon Robert Lindstrom is an American actor, writer, director, producer, and musician. He is well known for his roles of Kevin Collins and Ryan Chamberlain on the ABC Daytime soap opera General Hospital and its spin-off Port Charles.

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SYNOPSIS: "From 4-time Emmy-nominated actor Jon Lindstrom of General Hospital, Bosch, and True Detective fame, comes a gripping debut thriller.

Set in the dark underbelly of the LA film industry, Hollywood Hustle is the perfect read for fans of Alex Finlay and Jeffrey Deaver.

Winston Greene, a has-been film star, wakes one morning to find his six-year-old granddaughter at his bedside—traumatized, unattended, and gripping onto a thumb drive. She comes bearing video proof that her mother, Win’s troubled adult daughter, has been kidnapped by a murderous gang demanding all his “movie money” for her safe return. But what they don’t know is…his movie money is long gone.

Unable to go to the police for fear the kidnappers will make good on their promise to kill his daughter, Winston turns to two close friends—a legendary Hollywood stuntman and a disgraced former LAPD detective.

There’s no easy way out for Winston or his daughter—the gang is violent and willing to do anything to get the money they’re after, and Winston begins to realize that to get his daughter back, he’ll have to beat the kidnappers at their own game.

This propulsive and tense thriller will transport readers to the seedier side of LA, depicted in bold prose by a Hollywood insider."