The Last Act

December 15, 2018
The FBI hires an aging child actor to go undercover in a West Virginia prison to extract vital information from a convicted money launderer who'd rather keep his head down.Tommy Jump's best days onstage are probably behind him. At 27, he's too old to play children or even teenagers. But as his old schoolmate Danny Ruiz, who's now with the FBI, assures him, he's not too old to earn a fat paycheck by playing the role of Peter Lenfest Goodrich, the high school history teacher who reacted to a bank's plans to foreclose on his mortgage by robbing the bank and then getting caught. Danny is convinced that Tommy's just the person to worm himself into the confidence of Mitchell Dupree, whose job as an executive in the Latin American division at Union South Bank was seriously compromised when he laundered millions for El Vio, the fearsome, half-blind boss of the New Colima Cartel. Mitch has a wife and two children just beginning the long wait outside for him to serve his time, and although he's arranged for the documentary evidence he assembled against El Vio to be turned over to the authorities if anything untoward happens to him, he's not about to upset the apple cart by talking out of turn--unless of course it's to innocuous Pete Goodrich, who'll be serving time alongside him in the minimum security Morgantown Prison as soon as he pleads guilty and bids a tearful farewell to Amanda Porter, Tommy's actual fiancee, who's just found out she's pregnant. After all, Tommy's been acting professionally for most of his life, and the FBI will spring him on a moment's notice if he gets into trouble, so what could possibly go wrong? Fans of Parks' well-oiled thrillers (Closer than You Know, 2018, etc.) won't even bother to ask; they'll be too busy licking their chops anticipating the twists that are bound to come.The setup is so patient and the logistics so matter-of-fact that even the savviest readers will be caught in the story's expertly laid traps before they know what's happening.

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December 1, 2018
A Brad Parks novel offers two pleasures. One is watching a stunning talent at work. The other?operating almost apart from the first? is getting wrapped in the coils of a fiendishly clever thriller. Parks here works his magic on behalf of Tommy Jump, a pint-size stage actor who lives in the half-world of the half-successful and is mighty tired of it. He's aging. His gorgeous fianc�e is pregnant. Like a deus ex machina, a friend from Tommy's past appears. Flashing FBI credentials, he offers Tommy an acting job (for a fat fee) that will require Tommy to confess to a nonexistent bank robbery and spend time in prison, there befriending a banker who holds secrets about a vicious Mexican drug cartel. Tommy and the banker become friends, the cartel catches on, and what follows is a dazzling game of who-is-what. The prose is hypnotic, the emotions genuine, the characters warm and alive. And the revelations as the masks drop are for Parks to reveal. Readers are not likely to scorn Tommy because he got fooled. So will they.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)

Starred review from February 1, 2019

Multi-award-winning Parks (Closer Than You Know) returns with a stand-alone about Tommy Jump, once a child star, now an over-the-hill musical theater actor at 27. He's contemplating the end of his career when he's offered the role of a lifetime. A childhood friend, now an FBI agent, wants him to impersonate a convict in a minimum-security prison and to buddy up to a man responsible for laundering money for a Latin American drug cartel, with the hope he'll reveal the location of incriminating documents detailing the cartel leader's activities. Tommy, with an artist girlfriend and a baby on the way, agrees, unaware that the cartel has their own men inside. Once Tommy is behind bars under an assumed name, he's on his own, and must navigate the prison system using the charm and acting abilities that once made him the toast of Broadway. VERDICT This novel packs on the suspenseful surprises and plot reversals that made Parks a mainstay on the best-seller lists, but it's not just gritty and dark. With a lighter approach, Parks focuses on enduring characters and sharp wordplay, perfect for those who like their thrillers witty rather than bloody. Even if they aren't fans of Broadway musicals, readers will want to seek out this one. [See Prepub Alert, 9/17/18.]--Gregg Winsor, Johnson Cty. Lib., Overland Park, KS

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2019

Stage actor Tommy Jump needs money so he agrees to pose as a felon, enter a low-security prison, and cozy up to Mitchell Dupree, a banker arrested for laundering money for a particularly vicious Mexican cartel. It's tougher than Tommy imagined. From the Shamus, Nero, and Lefty Award winner.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.