Acclaimed screenwriter Marshall Karp has been lauded for his Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs mysteries. Picking up where their first adventure, THE RABBIT FACTORY, left off, this duo of bickering Hollywood detectives investigates another high-profile case.
After solving the Familyland murders, Lomax and Biggs are approached by world-famous movie producer Barry Gerber to make a film of their story. Bitten by the movie-star bug, the two men know this could mean big money. Just before the deal can be finalized, however, Gerber turns up dead - all the blood drained from his body. The number one suspect is a maverick star actor known for his temper, excessive lifestyle, and a previous quarrel with Gerber. But when he is abducted, the killer's deadly designs take on a whole new dimension.
Fans of Hollywood scandals will love the insider feel of Karp's intriguing mystery. NarratorsTom Stechschulte and James Jenner shine in their portrayal of the witty Lomax and Biggs.
"...brings to mind Robert B. Parker, Janet Evanovich, Dean Koontz, Stuart Woods and a lot of other fast-paced authors." - New York Times Book Review.
Marshall Karp is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, a TV and screenwriter, documentarian, and playwright. Working with James Patterson, Marshall cocreated and cowrote the NYPD Red series. After six bestsellers, Marshall has carried the series forward on his own, beginning with NYPD Red 7: The Murder Sorority. Marshall is also the author of Snowstorm in August, as well as the critically acclaimed Lomax and Biggs novels, featuring LAPD Detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs. For over twenty years he has worked closely with the international charity Vitamin Angels, providing tens of millions of mothers and children around the globe with lifesaving vitamins and nutrients.
After taking the recommendation to read some of Marshall Karp’s solo work, I reached for this series. Enjoying the first novel in the collection, I was happy to continue, hoping the intensity would remain. This is a great police procedural set on the streets of LA, with gritty detective work, off-colour humour, and a great flow from one event to another. Karp dazzles once more in this piece, adding depth to areas he did did not expound upon in the debut and opening new doors to even better writing.
No one ever said that Los Angeles was not a tough city, something that LAPD Detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs know all too well. As these two bask in the fame that came their way during a previous murder investigation, there is talk of a movie or even a television series bearing their names. However, it is key not to let anything get to their heads.
After one of the industry’s most hated men does not appear for a Hollywood party, people begin talking. When Barry Gerber’s body is found dumped the following morning, Lomax and Biggs are astonished as to what’s happened to him. There is little time to ponder this, as the detectives must find the killer before things cool down too much. In a city when enemies are easier to find than one’s own shoelaces, the suspect list keeps growing by the hour. When Lomax and Biggs think that they might have a lead and the potential killer, he, too, turns up slain in the same odd manner. Now it’s clear that the killer is not only on the hunt, but has a motive.
As Lomax and Biggs delve even deeper, they come across a plot that chills them to the bone and proves to be far more sinister than simply killing one’s enemies. The problem is, there is no clear understanding as to who might be next on the killer’s list. A great follow-up novel in this series that will have readers flipping pages for as long as time permits. Marshall Karp keeps readers guessing until the very end once more.
Marshall Karp continues to dazzle with this series, offering up all the elements to a successful novel and laying the groundwork for a great series. Karp’s balanced narrative guides the reader through the action from the outset, building on the characters of the two protagonists in both their professional and personal lives. Lomax remains in the limelight throughout, with his own personal struggles the highlight of non-crime discussions, but Terry Biggs is not free from some of his own analysis. Some decent secondary characters help to advance the story, offering clues related to the crime, or simply a means by which to inject some banter. Needed plot twists appear at various points and shape the larger story. I am still quite attached to the series and hope to keep the momentum going, as I reach for the next novel in the collection. Marshall Karp has done it again and I cannot get enough.
Kudos, Mr. Karp, for adding more grit and humour to what could be a dark subject matter.
I love Marshall Karp novels. I have taken a backseat on reading for some odd reason this entire summer but this book right here Bloodthirsty got my reading juices flowing again. He's 2 for 2 on this series can't wait ti read book 3
Wonderful second book in a series. Love the main characters Lomax-Biggs. Although Big Jim is turning out to be my favorite person. The backround stories were supurb. Avery fast read. Looking forward to the next installment.
This is the second in a series. I read the first one when it first came out over a million years ago....I kid - it was something like 2006. I remember liking it and didn't realize it was a series so I picked up this one to read. It was okay - a bit dated - in technology and dialog. The two main characters are fun but I got really tired of the father in the story...I might read the next one - this is a good series to have in my back pocket so I can add to my kindle when sitting on the beach or by the pool.
Knocked this book out pretty quickly! Not because I'm a fast reader, but because this was so fast-paced and suspenseful, and just...easy to follow!
The plot is great and the characters are crafted well. The dialogue kind of makes it not as realistic, but hey, the funny one-liners from Terry add a levity to the story, and makes it all the more entertaining :) But are there really cops who will make this many wisecracks in an ongoing homicidal investigation? ¿quién sabe? This book has everything a mystery should have: fast-paced action scenes, investigating clues from a victim/crime scene, analyzing the psychology of the perpetrators. And like other Marshall Karp books, I could actually form a guess as to how this happened, and start to put together the pieces.
Now that I think about it, I read all of the Lomax & Biggs books out of order. I just realized that they haven't gotten a house yet. lol. And they keep referring to the "Familyland" case, which I thought I completely missed. Turns out, it's from the first book, which I am reading next...oops :3
I've always considered most mystery novels to be a sort of waste of time; if I can solve a 'whodunnit' with about a hundred pages left, it's probably not that well-written. Karp's novels have a tendency to take sharp left-hand turns into right field and leave you sitting there blinking and wondering what the hell you'd missed seventy-five pages previously. THAT, friends, is a good read, and indicative of a writer who knows how to tell a good story.
Do yourself a favor and start reading these books. Go tonight, if you can get to a library or bookstore.
The mysteries in Mr. Karp's books are never the work of criminal masterminds, just everyday people seeking the justice they deserve. combine that with a pair of buddy cops and their surrounding entourage and you've got yourself a page turner!
The latest book is shorter than his first but the mystery was more straight forward, more pages would have only been filler. A great sophomore novel. I hope he continues these characters because I want to see where they go!
Sequel is just as good as Karp's debut "Rabbit Factory," only shorter. In many cases, the wisecracking cop/detective novels are mere clones of each other. But Karp's two books are fresh,funny and enjoyable to read. I wish this, like Rabbit Factory, was 600-plus pages, but this one is much shorter. Can't wait for his next book.
This is so not my kind of book and I so liked it. So much that I will be reading the authors other offerings. Witty dialogue and twisty plot are like sweet and salty on a PMS day ~ fantastic.
Ah Hollywood, L.A.'s glitzier, fluffier cousin. The birthplace of Noir lies down street a little ways, but Tinsel Town has more than its fair share of darkness and depravity. It's the land of glamour and flashbulbs and shattered dreams. Beneath the gilded exterior she's as rotten and festering as a third world whore. So is it any wonder that it was the setting for one of the most entertaining mysteries I've read this year? The book is Blood Thirsty by Marshall Karp. It's number two in a series of four (so far at least), and I got to tell you: I'm already craving the next installment like a junkie after his next fix.
The main characters of the series are Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs, a couple of detectives in the Hollywood Division of the Los Angeles police department. Mike is the straight man. The story is told from his perspective... mostly. He's hard and gruff and jaded. Terry is just as hard and jaded as Mike, but he also packs an arsenal of jokes that would make Dave Chappelle jealous. Together they make for one of the most entertaining detective partnerships I've seen in a long time.
This installment of The Lomax and Biggs Detective Duo Extravaganza picks up where the last boo, The Rabbit Factory), left off. Still basking in the glow of their success with the Family Land murders, our intrepid detectives are approached by a bigshot producer/director wanting to purchase for the rights to make the Family Land story into a movie. Money changes hands, and the detectives are invited to a Hollywood premier to meet a producer named Barry Gerber who might be bankrolling their movie. They go, along with their significant others and Mike's loud-mouthed father, Big Jim Lomax, and everyone has a smashing good time. Everyone except for their bigshot producer. He never makes it to the premier and is found exsanguinated and stuffed in a trash can in Beverly Hills. And wouldn't you know it? Lomax and Biggs just happen to catch the case. But before they can get a good handle on who they're dealing with, another Hollywood bigshot turns up exsanguinated and stuffed into a port-o-potty--this time an actor named Damien Hedge.
There are too many pieces to the puzzle to enumerate them all here, but take my word for it when I say Karp does an admirable job of stringing the reader along. Midway through the book the detectives learn that their quarry is a husband and wife from Podunk, Texas. Their only daughter wound up on the wrong side of a knife and bled to death in a gutter, all because the A-list stars needed their blow. It turns out that Mama and Daddy didn't take kindly to that, so they decided that SoCal was in need of a little Texas-style justice. After this revelation, our detectives rush off to save the next scum-sucker on the Lone Star hit list, and things go predictably askew.
Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil the ending. The only reason I mentioned the murderers' names and back story was because Karp punctuates his narrative with chapters from the parents' point of view, so it can't really be a spoiler, now can it? I don't usually like that kind of structure in a novel, though. It seems like a cop-out to some extent, and it takes away much of the fun of a whodunnit story if you tell me right of the bat who the murderer is. That being said, in this instance it didn't at all ruin my enjoyment of the book. If anything, that is the biggest testament to Karp's skill as a storyteller. He's also a damn funny guy. The one-liners and jokes that flew between Lomax and Biggs made me laugh out loud a couple of times, which is no mean feat in itself, I'll tell you. But the thing that I liked most about the novel, the thing that got me all tingly inside during the reading of it, was the language. Yeah, the dialogue is smoking too, but Karp's prose is as sharp and biting as a razor's edge. Karp has a flare for hardboiled imagery that makes me go squishy inside. I eat it up. It's the kind of thing I long for in a book--not only a good story, but creative language and inventive style. What can I say? I'm a literature geek at heart. It's my bag.
I'd be hard pressed to come up with a negative side to the book. But if someone put a gun to my head and made me, I'd have to say that Karp tries a little too hard to make the murderers sympathetic. And they are sympathetic, no doubt. If someone killed my little boy and got away Scot free I'd contemplate similar measures. I just didn't feel that sorry for the girl. She made a choice to get involved with all that Hollywood crap, and she paid the price. Yeah, it wasn't fair, but little in this world is. Call me a hard-hearted existentialist.
But after reading Bloodthirsty, I do have one nagging question. How exactly should we classify it? You could say it's Neo-Noir. It's certainly fits the theme, what with all the human darkness and the lack of sentimentality. It's not James Elroy dark, nor does it need to be in order to be Neo-Noir, but there's a note of redemption in the plot that does not belong in Noir. So that's not it. And it isn't a police procedural, either. You can tell Karp has done his homework on law enforcement tactics, but there are some aspects to the tale that are more sensational that realistic. So that's out. One of the biggest things I liked about the book was the hardboiled language, but the story itself isn't totally hardboiled. There's no Dirty Harry-style vigilante justice (on the part of the detectives, at least), and the story ends too nicely for it to be completely hardboiled. I dunno. Maybe it's all three. Maybe it's none of the three. Or maybe I need to quit trying to put everything in a neat little box.
Whatever other labels may apply, Blood Thirsty is at its core a Mystery, and an excellent one at that. It was a thrilling ride I blasted through in just a couple of days, and I'm already salivating for the next installment. In the end, that's all that matters.
Marshall Karp works with James Patterson on various series but the Lomax & Biggs books are all his own. And they are very good. The plots are compelling, as the two L.A. detectives try to figure out what starts as a bizarre murder and turns into a serial string of bizarre murders. Lomax is the straight man, Biggs the comedian, and the banter is authentic and witty. The bit players, the bad guys, and even the victims are vividly drawn—if you’re a fan of Hiaasen quirky villains you’ll enjoy the cast. All in all an excellent read—read them all.
Bloodthirsty - A totally creepy murder M.O. makes this book 2 of the Lomax and Biggs series memorable. As usual, the wisecracking is top-notch, and the mystery truly mysterious, coming to a pulse-pounding ending. Story 5, Craft 5, Humor 4.
Lomax and Biggs, LAPD detectives, are funny. And I like to laugh. They encounter Elmore Leonard-like engaging and zany characters who keep my interest. Lomax's relationship with his father is unusual for tough guys. And these are tough guys. This one's about Hollywood which allows Kapp to paint the big picture and a free-wheeling plot.
You can't go wrong with Marshall Kapp. I'll read the entire series.
This was my second Karp book, the first was Snowstorm in August which was a fantastic read, but I’m sorry to say that this one went into my DNR pile. It’s just not what I was expecting. I like humor in a book, but what I was hoping for was horror, and I didn’t get a single chill. I’ll leave the rest of the Lorax & Biggs series for when I do want some laughs and in the meantime I’ll go to something more like Snowstorm from his writings.
Detectives Briggs & Lomax out of the Hollywood precinct are involved in another high profile murder investigation. A producer is murdered, an actor is abducted. They need to find the perpetrator(s) quickly or the brass will have their hides.
The tension builds in this well-structured murder mystery to an eventful conclusion.
Another great, entertaining book. I love the LA/entertainment setting. Much different from what I usually read. I also love that when the mystery is solved, there’s more to discover. The main characters Lorax and Biggs are sensitive, funny character that will keep me coming back for more.
Most of the book was devoted to trying to be funny, and not reading like a murder mystery. If you pick this book up, don’t bother reading it, but please return it to the section for humor, not crime stories.
These books featuring Lomax and Briggs are great -- funny, irreverent, no-nonsense cops solving crimes in LA. In this one some Hollywood moguls are being murdered by exsanguination and Lomax and Briggs are on the case.
Honestly, almost a full five stars. I love the plot and the characters are growing on me. I’m not sure if I like it better than the first one, but I think so. I’m really looking forward to reading the next book in the series.
The second book in the Lomax-Briggs series was good not as good as Marshall Karp's first book, but still well paced and written. This author writes funny and easy to read detective novels. I am a fan.
Two thumbs up for this riveting series about two detectives - Lomax and Biggs - and the amazing plots (and plot twists). One of the best of police thrillers series I have ever read.