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FIRECRACKER
by Ray Shannon
Jove, January 2005
304 pages
$7.99
ISBN: 051513886X


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Clarice Germaine, Reece to her friends, is a tough Hollywood PR executive and definitely no stranger to outrageous behavior. Her weekend fling in Vegas with Dallas Cowboys tight end Raygene Price has left her eight months pregnant and in possession of a gambling slip that will pay off $1.25 million if her team wins next week's Super Bowl.

Raygene, in a living-large courtship gesture, gave her the money to place the bet during their spring Vegas weekend, when the Arizona Cardinals were the worst team in football and their chances of winning the Super Bowl seemed remote indeed.

Reece has been trying to negotiate child support payments with Raygene's mom, who is also his money manager. The amount she's asking seems more than reasonable given Raygene's income, but, incredibly, Raygene really doesn't have it. Some very bad business decisions have left him nearly penniless. His financial future depends on his ability to renegotiate his contract with the Cowboys.

He's a fabulous player, but he hasn't always been smart about his off-the-field conduct. If the Cowboys smell a PR problem with Raygene they're set to walk away from his contract, and he knows it. If it became known that he had placed a bet on a pro-football game, his career would be over.

On the other hand, Raygene remembers that gambling slip of Reece's, and he's hoping that Reece will overlook his unreasonableness about child support and cut him in on the winnings. He's in desperate need of the money because Trip, his homie from the projects in Florida, is out of jail and has figured out a not-so-clever blackmail scheme to force Raygene to give him money to pay off Trip's nearly quarter of a million in dope debts . Trip is a white man who wishes he were black. He's got the bling, the posse, and the patter down, but manages to look more pathetic than menacing most of the time.

All of these characters show up in Vegas on Super Bowl weekend. In addition, Raygene's agent sends Aeneas Charles, a private investigator, to figure out what kind of trouble Raygene's in and get him out of it.

The story's as fast-paced and outrageous as it sounds. FIRECRACKER is pure entertainment in an Elmore Leonard knock-off sort of way. What's not to like about this swimming pool full of wacked-out characters, with its plot that cranks out rollercoaster rhythms and twists? You'll be happy you paid your money and tucked FIRECRACKER into your beach bag along with your sunscreen.

Reviewed by Carroll Johnson, April 2005

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