MAN EATER

"Few things were admired more in Hollywood than the clean kill... better that you were known for having once cut an adversary's heart out with a scalpel than disemboweled him with a pickax." This is the essence of newcomer Shannon's view of the movie business, and it sums up both the sardonic humor and offhanded brutality of this clever thriller. The author (an accomplished writer and Hollywood insider hiding behind a pseudonym—probably a smart move) devises the best rip-off of an Elmore Leonard novel since Elmore Leonard. He interweaves the lives of Ronnie Deal (a sexy producer on the rise, with a tormented past and a slimy colleague bent on drumming her out of the business), Ellis Langford (an ex-con sweating his parole in order to regain visitation rights to his estranged family), the Ayala brothers (vicious, drug-dealing morons), Antsy Carruth (a trashy bimbo who lifts a pile of stolen drug money from her trashy ex-boyfriend) and Neon Polk (the psychotic enforcer dispatched to retrieve the money). Shannon adroitly threads plots and subplots together, occasionally smashing characters into one another with much brio and bloodshed. While his manipulations of his hilarious characters would befit an R-rated Looney Tunes cartoon, some of his finest moments are his wonderfully carnivorous swipes at Hollywood's twisted spawn: "It was the story of a professional wrestler –turned–homicide detective on the trail of a snowboarding band of serial killers. The working title was 'Blood on the Mat.' " This novel is a must for fans of Leonard, Wambaugh and Hiaasen. (Feb. 7)