The $trip

admin — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:09:00 +0000

Mafia hits, scandal, celebrity, subterfuge, Vegas. The $trip by E. Duke Vincent seems to have all you would want in a guilty pleasure read. Though given all of the possibility that should have been building throughout the book, it was a bit of a let down.

The main character, Nick Conti, is a TV producer on the show The $trip. A couple of low-level Chicago mobsters are blackmailing the show, promising to shut down production if a cut of the shows profits are not handed over. Conti himself has connections from his past to the Kansas City mob. He is currently known in Vegas as a womanizer who prefers to keep out of the spotlight.

Arson on the set of Conti’s show and the attack on one of the stars brings out the journalists sniffing around for a story. Conti is the one who has to deal with all of it.

There are numerous plot twists that don’t add to the book’s sense of excitement or suspense. Conti’s old flame, Erin Conroy, pops up connected to a movie producer with his own separate ties to the mob. One plot line that should have been developed further is the angst that Conti reportedly went through in returning to his mob roots as the book ends.

The book is well-researched, and I have no doubt that the situations and characters presented are true to life. Vincent was a producer of a number of popular shows including Beverly Hills 90210 and 7th Heaven. I feel that this book would work better on the screen; unfortunately, the writing doesn’t have the excitement of Vincent’s TV shows. I had figured that there would be more suspense and scandal involved in the story, and it just fell flat.

Throughout the book, women are essentially objects. The lead female character, Erin Controy, is noted for her waistline, leg length, and sexiness. She is not fleshed out as an actual character; all that is focused on is her flesh.

For a casual guilty pleasure read (particularly someone who appreciates seeing women portrayed as actual women as compared to bits of meat), you could do better. For a book on scandal in Vegas or the mob, you could do better. For a start of a movie script, it’s not bad.

Written by: Kristin Conard, April 18th 2009

The Delivery Man

admin — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:06:00 +0000

By Joe McGinniss Jr.

Black Cat

The Delivery Man is the story of Chase, a twenty-something guy living in Las Vegas. The book switches between Chase’s present day life and flashbacks from his tragic Las Vegas childhood. The Delivery Man is Joe McGinniss Jr.’s first book, and while I enjoyed his writing style, I hope he does better with the plot on his next attempt.

The book starts out with Chase spending a typical night out with his friends, Hunter and Michele. Michele is Chase’s childhood friend and currently works as a hooker. Hunter is a wannabe actor who works as a pirate at one of the Las Vegas hotels. While it is apparent that all three have dabbled in drugs, Michele is the only one who has an obvious cocaine habit.

On this particular night, Chase is feeling anxious because his girlfriend Julia is coming to visit. Julia attends grad school in California, but there’s going to be an MBA conference in Las Vegas, so she will be in town for a week. At one point, Chase states that he does not feel he’s good enough for Julia because he’s a high school art teacher and not the successful artist he longs to be. Let’s go over that again.

Hanging out with junkies and hookers doesn’t make Chase feel like he’s wasting his life, but being a high school art teacher does. Luckily, Chase doesn’t have to worry about his embarrassing job for too long, because he gets fired for getting into a fistfight with a student. Free now to pursue his art career without any pesky job getting in the way, Chase takes the next logical step. He starts driving Michele around to her various johns, because nothing screams “Artist!” quite like “Hooker Chauffer.”

Anyway, a bunch of stuff happens after that: Michele steals money from her pimp/boyfriend, Julia gets pregnant, Chase gets beat up, there are a lot of drugs and sex with underage girls. I’m sure it’s all supposed to be really gritty and thrilling. Unfortunately, the whole thing comes off as more exhausting then exciting.

The biggest problem is the main character. It’s hard to feel anything for Chase because, well, he’s a loser. He’s weak and whiney, and after the first few chapters you stop caring what happens to him because it’s pretty obvious that Chase himself doesn’t even care. I could have even dredged up some sympathy if he’d been doing the best he could or was the victim of circumstance - if he were hardworking, but stuck in a dead end job due to lack of higher education and money, for example. This is not the case though. Chase has a college degree and a respectable job, but chooses to hang around with people that do nothing but drag him back into the trashy, pathetic world of his childhood.

A story about the "have-nots" can be eye-opening and emotional. A story about the "choose-nots" is just annoying.

Written by: Victoria Kroeger, June 13th 2008