Jack Be Nimble

by Jerry Jay Carroll

Ex-Marine Alan Ford thought he left danger behind by putting the Middle East in the rear view mirror and saying hello to the movie business as the protégé of a Hollywood potentate. The problem is his big-shot sponsor is a liar and cheat, fairly standard for the industry. But a South American drug lord doesn’t know this and expects the money he invests in a film to be laundered, not embezzled. As the innocent fall guy, Ford needs all his survival skills just to keep breathing. And the drug lord isn’t even the half of it.

405 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 2021

About the author

Jerry Jay Carroll is a former journalist nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize and the author of six novels, among them Top Dog, a NYT bestseller. Just out is End Times, an eschatological thriller about Good vs. Evil. Before that was another genre-bending roller-coaster ride called The Horror Writer about a wildly popular author Thom Hearn who who writes low-brow crap for the masses that get made into lucrative summer tent-pole splatter movies . Hearn is rich but the disdain of the literary world made him bitter. Then comes the invitation he gets with Wall Street whiz Carrie Alexander to a Davos-like conference of the high and mighty run by a charismatic man who can do anything better than anyone else. Hearn is the first to notice the weirdness but Carrie's not far behind. Then his fictional characters start showing up and that’s only the beginning. Who is running the show here, the charismatic director of the conference or some other manipulator? And why must everyone in the world die? Carroll was a feature writer and columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle before moving with wife and son to Montana and, later, Oregon.

Reviews

[Nanasbookreviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

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I received a copy in exchange for an honest review.

Jack Be Nimble by Jerry Jay Carroll is a suspense novel.

Alan Ford, an ex-marine screenwriter was framed for his best friend's murder. He turned into a fugitive, traveling for months alone with no money. In order to stay alive, he decided to get a job under the name of Jack Dart while he tried to find a lawyer to clear his name. Staying under the radar wasn't obviously in Alan's blood because he soon found himself in the middle of another dangerous situation. For one more time, he was playing the hero for a mad scientist while his high-profile lawyer was trying to keep him out of jail.

When I started reading this book I thought it would be just a murder mystery but soon it turned out to be so much more. The plot began in a simple way introducing the Hollywood scene and the murder. Quickly it transformed into a suspense/thriller with the hero fighting to stay out of prison and living a very different life as another person. The suspense of the second
situation caused me more anxiety than the mystery part. For a reader who isn't familiar with this genre wasn't easy to keep up sometimes. There was so much going on at the same time. I liked the fact that the author explained a lot about the scientific part of the story. It was quite educational. I also appreciated that among all the famous and high-profile men he included a few strong female characters as well. For some reason, this book reminded me of Liam Neeson's movies. If this turned out to be a movie I could picture him as Alan Ford for sure.

If you love suspenseful thrillers then you need to read Jack Be Nimble.