Jason Starr Lights Out

Lights Out

Jason Starr

St. Martin's, Sep 2006, $22.95

ISBN: 0312359721

Ryan Rossetti and Jake Thomas made Canarsie High School's baseball team nationally ranked; they were both sure shot major leaguers. Jake reached the big leagues where he stars for the Pirates having just completed an all star season hitting 351. However, Ryan saw his pitching career snap to a sudden halt when he tore a ligament. Whereas Jake is making the big bucks in Pittsburgh, Ryan paints houses back home in Brooklyn for less than a living wage.

Now the superstar is coming back to Canarsie to celebrate his great success and to change his image from an out of control hedonist to a caring give something back to the community person. His agent warns Jake to behave because he will most likely face a statutory-rape arrest that could end his chances of obtaining the big endorsements. Thus Jake returns to Brooklyn as a hero, but also to ask his high school sweetheart, Christina Mercado, whose surname he cannot remember, to marry him. Christina realizes she is candy to sweeten Jake's image and is seeing Ryan. At the same time the triangle plays out in New York City, other locals have grudges with one another that will violently disrupt Jake's triumphant return to the place where his glory started.

From the start readers anticipate tempers overflowing as jealousy, anger, and resentment explode and not just with the baseball players. The story line is action-packed from the moment that readers understand the paths taken by the two former Canarsie superstars and never slows down until the final violent walk off homer. Readers who appreciate a powerfully character driven urban noir will enjoy the aptly named Jason Starr's grand slam thriller.

Harriet Klausner