From the TBR Pile: Blog Tour: 13 Hollywood Apes by Gil Reavill

Author: Gil Reavill
Publisher: Alibi

Date of publication: December 2014

As a wildfire rages outside the Odalon Animal Sanctuary in the rugged Santa Monica foothills, the retired Hollywood movie chimpanzees housed there are shot and left for dead. When Malibu detective Layla Remington reaches the grisly scene the next morning, she’s deeply disturbed—and even more confused. The victims are not human, so the attack cannot be classified as homicide. Yet someone clearly wanted these animals dead, and executed them with ruthless efficiency. Miraculously, there is one survivor: a juvenile male named Angle.

But as Layla reaches the veterinarian’s office where Angle is recovering, a man with rock-star good looks and a laid-back Southern California attitude swoops in and removes him. And just like that, an unusual case turns truly bizarre. Soon reports surface of ferocious attacks against Odalon employees . . . with Angle as the prime suspect. As a wave of senseless violence reaches its apex, Layla chases a mystery man and his chimp—but everything comes back to that terrible night at the sanctuary.

I'm not sure why I was expecting more of a cozy mystery when I went into 13 Hollywood Apes. But, the book is anything but. It's definitely darker than I was expecting. The opening scene was sad and disturbing. It initially sucked me in, but after a few chapters, I found myself putting the book down to do other things. One of the aspects of the book that I did like was Layla. I admired her determination to find out what really happened to the apes. Sadly, it just wasn't enough to keep my interest. I felt like that book dragged and just wasn't a good fit for me. I do want to say I think that the book was well written and will be a hit with fans of this gritty type of book.

About the author:

Gil Reavill is a journalist, screenwriter, and playwright. Widely featured in magazines, Reavill is the author of Mafia Summit: J. Edgar Hoover, the Kennedy Brothers, and the Meeting That Unmasked the Mob, as well as Aftermath, Inc.: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home and the screenplay that became the 2006 film Dirty, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. He lives in New York with his wife, Jean Zimmerman, and their daughter.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Gil Reavill’s TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:

Tuesday, December 9th: Bell, Book & Candle

Tuesday, December 9th: The Book Diva’s Reads – author guest post

Thursday, December 11th: Lilac Reviews

Monday, December 15th: Nightly Reading