One of the best books I read last year was Terrill Lee Lankford's EARTHQUAKE WEATHER. The sequel will be published soon, and anyone who loved the first book will want to read BLONDE LIGHTNING, because it's even better.
Mark Hayes is still on the fringes of the movie business after being cleared of murder, and he joins forces with writer/director Clyde McCoy to make a low-budget film noir called Blonde Lightning. The story of how this movie comes about, from start to finish, furnishes the skeleton of this novel, but it's much more than that, as Mark has to grapple with plenty of emotional and moral issues. When someone tries to kill him and Clyde, things get worse. When they try to deal with that threat, things get really bad.
This book is not just about the plot, though. It's about the fear of death, and the compromises between art and business, and the power of both love and friendship. It's about striving for a bit of immortality in a very mortal world. Lankford is one of the few authors who can manage to be hilariously funny, heartbreakingly poignant, and bone-chillingly dark in the same book -- sometimes in the same chapter. BLONDE LIGHTNING is a fine, fine book, and although I just finished it, I expect it to linger in my mind for a long time.
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