Babylon Nights - by Daniel Depp (Paperback)

About the Book

Intrepid private investigator David Spandau works to protect a suicidal A-list actress from a stalker who launches a deadly cat-and-mouse game that takes them from the streets of Hollywood to the chaos of the Cannes Film Festival.

Book Synopsis

Fifteen years ago, Anna Mayhew won an Oscar for Best Actress. Rich, famous, and beautiful, she had the world at her feet. Nearly forty years old, Anna is being offered these days only bland supporting roles, the kind she got her acting started with. So she spends much of her time thinking up clever and dangerous methods of self-destruction.

But she may not have to kill herself after all. Anna discovers she has a stalker--Vincent, a crazed fan whose idea of love involves a straight razor and lots of blood. What better way to propel the name Anna Mayhew into film immortality? Enter David Spandau, ex-stuntman and private investigator, who has been hired by Anna's sister Pam to protect the star. But Anna doesn't want help--until she meets Spandau and decides she needs his intimate protection all the way to the Cannes Film Festival, where she's slated to be a judge.

Spandau finds himself falling for Anna, as well. But there's the not so small problem of trying to keep a woman alive who'd prefer to be dead. To complicate matters, Vincent has followed Anna to Cannes intent on a bloody consummation of their relationship and he is being tracked by Special, an opera-loving L.A. pimp trying to recover the mob-owned money Vincent stole from him.

So a deadly cat-and-mouse game that begins in the meat market of Hollywood culminates at the Roman orgy that is Cannes. Author Depp proves again to have the deadliest and most perceptive eye trained on the entertainment business today. With an enthralling, hair-raising final act, Babylon Nights is a twisted and sharply funny thrill ride that will delight Spandau fans and newcomers alike.

Review Quotes

"Depp's David Spandau shoots from the hip and joins the ranks of such great wise-cracking private eyes as Parker's Spenser, Crais' Elvis Cole, and Chandler's Philip Marlowe. If you want proof, check out the exchange on page 29."

--Otto Penzler, two-time Edgar(R) winning editor of "The Lineup"