Saturday, August 4

Don't Look Down - Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer

Lucy Armstrong was reluctant to leave New York, and her thriving career as an advertising director (specialising in animals), but when her five year old niece Pepper started crying on the phone, Lucy knew there was a problem. Taking along her indispensable AD, Gloom, she heads down south to wrap up the final few days of filming, and find out what's going on with Pepper and Lucy's baby sister Daisy.
She was right about there being a problem - there's something weird going on on the set of "Don't Look Down". For a start, the script veers from its rom-com beginnings into an action film, complete with a helicopter swooping over a bridge and gator-filled swamps. Half the crew have deserted the set, the half just don't give a damn, everyone's sleeping with everyone else 9not so unusual), and the lead is an insecure comic who wants to revamp his image as an action hero.
Green Beret J.T. Wilder's not thrilled about acting as stunt double and military consultant, and when he discovers he was hired as part of a covert CIA-posing-as-FBI operation led by a wet-behind-the-ears newbie he's less impressed by the minute. But there's something about Armstrong, the tall and gorgeous director, that makes him dig in his heels.
This palatable novel is a little change of pace for Crusie - co written by ex-Green Beret Bob Mayer, it reads a little like Suzanne Brockman without the complicated back story. There were some brilliant scenes, engaging characters, amusing recurrent pop culture references (Wonder Woman and High Noon) and a solid story line. More substantial than some of the fairy floss I've been reading recently, it wasn't a whole meal and it was a fun dessert. Remind me to avoid metaphors in future. - Alex

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