This book is a murder mystery story featuring a reformed conman/convict, named Billy Blessing, who is now a chef and restaurant owner. Billy also makes appearances on a network TV morning show, as a guest chef and presenter. He has been sent by the network to serve as the sidekick on a new late night TV talk show. When the host of the show is killed by a bomb during a live broadcast, Billy gets caught up in the murder investigation.
When the killer's motive is finally revealed at the end of the book, it makes the whole story rather convoluted and bizarre. Because the motive didn't really have much to do with the rest of the story or characters. It turned out the host, who was Irish, was supposedly a former member of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), and he had been involved years ago in a bombing that killed the daughter of one of the other characters. So the Irish host was killed by the girl's father as revenge. All the other convoluted scenes and action leading to the revelation of the IRA connection turns out to have been meaningless attempts at intrigue. And in spite of what may seem a rather serious plot element, this book is ultimately intended to be a comedy. Unfortunately for readers, it isn't funny or enjoyable.
There are so many problems with this story it's hard to know where to begin. First, the story is written as a first person narrative by the main character, Billy Blessing. This is a problem because first person accounts are not well suited for fictional stories, although this fact seems lost to the publishing world.
Second, there are too many characters. When the story begins, Billy tells about events that occurred twenty years earlier and introduces four primary characters, one of whom had been murdered. Then Billy starts narrating about the present, and an additional four or five main characters are introduced. And then in addition to all these main characters, there are about 10 other secondary characters who keep popping up.
The characters represent every Hollywood stereotype possible. There is a pushy real estate agent, the aggressive TV executive, the timid secretary, the phony agent, the beautiful TV reporter, the temperamental chef, the Jewish guy, the catholic guy, and the list goes on and on. And the background stories of the main characters are so complicated they are difficult to follow. In addition, they are mostly outlandish and silly. And there is a multi-ethnic agenda in the casting of the characters. Every race, ethnicity, gender, and religion is politically correctly represented. One may think it would make the story rather cosmopolitan, but in fact the characters are all extremely provincial. The only readers who relate to them will be liberals with an interest in celebrities and the television industry.
The story is saturated with references to pop culture and celebrities. This book will not age well. Readers in ten or twenty years will have no idea about many of the celebrities and events the author mentions. There are pop singers and TV shows mentioned that won't even be remembered in two or three years.
It is a fast moving story, but unfortunately it moves fast from one unengaging scene to another. And there is a constant stream of misplaced profanity. And the profane words are not the only problem. There are just too many words. Period.
The authorship of this book is partially attributed to the NBC Today shows weatherman Al Roker. The co-author is Dick Lochte. To judge by their writing, they are rather shallow and vulgar people and only wrote the book in an attempt to sell it as an idea for a TV series. There is action, romance, mystery, and comedy. But most of all, there is just dumbness.
It is certainly a waste of time to read this book, but worse than that, readers are likely to feel worse about the world and their fellow men after reading the story. It would be better if books like this never got produced, because it would avoid the danger of anyone getting dumbed down and feeling bad after being exposed to it. So this book is suitable for burning.
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