Published in 1998
296 pages
Jen Banbury is an American playwright, author and journalist. She studied at Yale University and was a member of Manuscript Society. After publishing plays and a novel, she turned to reporting in 2003, becoming a freelancer who has reported for NPR, Salon.com, and other organizations. In 2003 and 2004, she reported from Baghdad for Salon. On March 3, 2004, Salon published her story “Guantanamo on Steroids”, one of the earliest articles about U.S. soldiers’ abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. It was listed as one of the “Best of Salon” for 2003. Her Salon reporting was cited and her story “Night Raid in Baghdad” was reprinted in Boots on the Ground: Stories of American Soldiers from Iraq to Afghanistan by Clint Willis.
What is this book about?
Jill, a part-time bookseller and full-time wise-ass, buys a first edition Jack London from a slippery-looking dwarf. The dwarf returns soon after with a polite assassin who wants the book back. Unfortunately Jill has already unloaded it for a nice profit, to a former child actor turned book dealer turned love interest. She isn’t about to drop the dime on him, so the upshot is, Jill has to find it — or else. What at first seems like a lucky break turns into unexpected adventure when a cast of B-movie thugs, sleazy book dealers, and ambitious Hollywood moguls join the hunt for the book. Jill finds herself leading an antic chase — via motorcycle, station wagon, and hijacked bottled-water delivery truck — across Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and the Hollywood Hills. Before she can retrieve the book and discover its irresistible secret, Jill will be cheated, lied to, drugged, tortured, and even forced to act as a movie extra against her will.
