Shaker by Scott Frank
Knopf/Penguin/Random House, $26.95, 333 pages, ISBN 978-0-385-35003-7
The folks living over on the left coast, earthquakes are an accepted fact of life; about as ordinary—and as welcome—as public rudeness or graffiti on our national monuments. Quakes are grudgingly acknowledged as an unpleasant fact of life out there. A trade-off perhaps, for the warm, wonderful Mediterranean climate and endless eye-popping coastline, its scenic wonders and bountiful interior where the crops grow without end. Almost a perfect place . . . except for those damnable temblors that come along every now and then and tear things up. An earthquake however, makes a great background for our MBR this week.
Shaker, by Scott Frank begins just few days after the Los Angeles area has been devastated by a large earthquake. That’s when a quiet, unassuming, middle-aged man named Roy Cooper comes to town. He’s an errand runner for some New York City criminals, and his errand is to clip a guy named Martin Shine . . . who disappeared after embezzling a boatload of mob money. Roy arrives, rents a car and gets a map to Shine’s apartment, where he takes care of business. No more Martin Shine. Roy makes his exit, but can’t find his car and after searching for a while, ends up in the midst of a mugging that becomes a second murder. Of course, being it’s LA, someone’s watching . . . and filming . . . all the action as the murder takes place in the alley behind his house. What makes the video go vial, is when Roy does something to one of the four gang-bangers who’s holding a gun on him, the one that Roy used on Martin Shine only moments earlier, and the very same banger uses to blow away the jogger he and his three fellows had been terrorizing when Ray Cooper stumbled into their midst. Almost immediately most of the City of Angels is hunting for Roy and the four young men who killed the jogger . . . who just happened to be the Hispanic law-and-order candidate for mayor in the upcoming election. With pitch-perfect dialog and dialect, non-stop action and a twisted diabolic plot which still finds places for humor that’s reminiscent of Elmore Leonard, Shaker is bound to be enjoyed by all who read it. We sure did!