Writer / Director
Bottom Feeders
”From years of experience fighting in the trenches of low-budget films, Shepphird has crafted a pulse-pounding thriller of page-turning fun.”
–Andrew W. Marlowe, Creator/Executive Producer of ABC’s Castle
”Classic Hollywood noir, complete with racetracks, drunks, has-been movie stars, and murder. I absolutely devoured this book…I’ll be waiting for whatever he writes next!”
–Steve Hamilton, New York Times bestselling author
”A crackling good yarn about the inner workings and intrigues behind the scenes of a Hollywood low-budget movie…Shepphird knows the terrain and gives the reader a deliciously voyeuristic view of the Hollywood dream factory at work. A great read!”
–Clive Rosengren, author of Red Desert
Also Available on Audible!
This audiobook is great entertainment from start to finish, and narrator Bronson Pinchot relishes every minute of it. On a remote ranch out of cell reception, Eddie is trying to direct a TV movie on a shoestring budget. As if pandering to egotistical actors isn't tough enough, someone is picking off the cast and production team one by one with a bow and arrows--and then there's the forest fire. Who will survive? Great fun ensues, as well as an opportunity for Pinchot to gently poke fun at Hollywood types. This audiobook will certainly provide a welcome distraction for anyone in need of an action fix.
BY JOHN SHEPPHIRD | NARRATED BY BRONSON PINCHOT
Mystery & Suspense • 6.5 hrs. • Unabridged • © 2017
The Shill: A Tale Of Deception
Struggling actress Jane Innes is seduced by a handsome new arrival in her acting class. He makes a proposition. He admits he’s a con man and needs Jane to pose as a rich, carefree heiress to fulfill her part in his intricate scam.
Would you agree? Or run the other way?
All goes as planned until Jane’s true identity threatens to surface and their scheme begins to crack at the seams.
It all leads to a tangled maze of deception, depravity and murder.
This trilogy by Shamus Award-winner Shepphird sets a new high standard for woman-in-jeopardy fiction. It consists of three linked novellas that follow the travails of Jane Innes, a likable but hapless underemployed actress whose string of bad luck takes her ever deeper into noir, but not without moments of dark humor. Trouble appears in the form of Cooper Sinclair, a handsome newcomer to her acting class, who romances then seduces her, both literally and into a life of crime. Confessing to being a con man, he outlines a can’t-fail scam involving the sale of a supposed fortune in diamonds to a lecherous wealthy realtor.
Against her better judgment, she agrees to play the role of the shill—the accomplice who adds credibility to the con, in this case by portraying a sexy heiress. Of course, things go awry all the way to murder, with Jane left to face the cops with a corpse in her car trunk. Released after suffering a brutal attack in prison, she’s approached by an FBI agent who tells her she’s been used by a powerful gang of swindlers who now want her dead.
Determined not only to survive but to settle the score with the con artists, she agrees to help the agent find them. The trail leads from L.A. to Sarasota and another murderous attack on Jane. Then, traveling alone, she heads to Miami and the Turks and Caicos, where once again she winds up in jeopardy. Battered but unbowed, Jane survives and continues her quest back to California for more danger, leading to a final explosive confrontation. Reader Kera O’Bryon uses a soft, almost flirtatious narration that is surprisingly effective in rendering the action-packed, heavily plotted yarn. She capably presents a protagonist forced by circumstance to cope with shocking twists, turns, deceitful allies, and an assortment of imaginative perilous situations, eventually leading to a discovery of her full potential. Including a pair of vicious but oddly amusing villains, nicely interpreted by O’Bryon, this is entertainment, unpretentious and nonstop.
D.L. © Mystery Scene Magazine
