THE MEDICI DAGGER

"Let he who finds the Dagger use it for noble purpose. That was my father's plan. And now it's mine." That stirring cry from Hollywood stunt man Reb Barnett occurs near the midway point of this laughable thriller about the search for a legendary dagger of unbreakable metal forged by Leonardo da Vinci, who hid the weapon and then left clues to its whereabouts in a manuscript called "The Circles of Truth." Twenty years ago, a courier sent by Barnett's museum curator father to retrieve the manuscript disappeared; that same night, Barnett's parents died in a suspicious fire. Now a voice from the past drags Barnett into completing his father's quest—to find the dagger before munitions broker Werner Krell and his sadistic assassin, Nolo Tecci, can get their hands on it. The novel reads like a fleshed-out action film screenplay, with multiple locations, plenty of violent action, outrageously corny dialogue and the usual push-button tics that pass for characterization in Hollywood: Reb courts danger; Reb has a hard time expressing his feelings for his friend Archie Ferris and love interest Antonia Genevra Gianelli. West— whose memoir, First Person Plural: My Life as a Multiple, was a New York Times bestseller—has written what might be the world's first stunt-thriller, a novel where at every moment you expect an off-page director to yell "Cut!" and order the real star in to flesh out the second unit shots that the stunt man just walked through. File this one under high concept, low execution. National advertising; 7-city author tour. (Sept. 11)

Forecast:Film rights have been purchased. Tom Cruise will star. Enough said.