Malibu Palms

Charlie is a funny-tough, hard-drinking bad boy whose wife is a comatose victim of a random drive-by. He hangs out at the Malibu Palms Apartments and works at the nearby marina. He doesn't like God, doesn't like cops, and he doesn't like being "a person of interest" when a beautiful neighbor drowns. She was Cindy Korbell, a struggling actress on the verge of stardom. In trying to track down her murderer, Charlie is sucked into a land scam, corrupt politics, and the sleazy world of Hollywood players and posers. He gets himself targeted for killing. Child's play compared to dealing with Patricia Diaz, a deliciously desirable, zealously devout Catholic. A bad boy might attract her, but only a good man can win her.

Screenwriter Jeff Andrus collaborated on Separated By Murder, As Summers Die and the French-American co-production, The Fatal Image. Scribner published his mystery novels, Tracer, Inc. and Neighborhood Watch in the mid-Nineties. Now comes his third novel, Malibu Palms. As before, humor is mixed with slaughter, but this time Andrus adds an unforgettably offbeat love story.