Book Review: 13 Hollywood Apes by Gil Reavill

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this ebook, free of charge, from Random House Publishing, via netGalley, , for review purposes on this blog. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it

And now for a book that takes the traditional mystery
and puts it on it's ear.


13 Hollywood Apes cover

Synopsis:

In a savvy, stylish thriller debut perfect for anyone who loves the crime novels of Michael Connelly or Nevada Barr, Gil Reavill unravels a chilling tale of murder and mayhem among humans and their closest evolutionary relatives—a primate family that may just be too close for comfort.
 

As a wildfire rages outside the Odalon Animal Sanctuary in the rugged Santa Monica foothills, the retired Hollywood movie chimpanzees housed there are shot and left for dead. When Malibu detective Layla Remington reaches the grisly scene the next morning, she’s deeply disturbed—and even more confused. The victims are not human, so the attack cannot be classified as homicide. Yet someone clearly wanted these animals dead, and executed them with ruthless efficiency. Miraculously, there is one survivor: a juvenile male named Angle.
 
But as Layla reaches the veterinarian’s office where Angle is recovering, a man with rock-star good looks and a laid-back Southern California attitude swoops in and removes him. And just like that, an unusual case turns truly bizarre. Soon reports surface of ferocious attacks against Odalon employees . . . with Angle as the prime suspect. As a wave of senseless violence reaches its apex, Layla chases a mystery man and his chimp—but everything comes back to that terrible night at the sanctuary.



Review:

This book was not what I was expecting! Layla is dedicated, but flawed. Human, yet persistent in her dedication to attaining her goal of becoming a 'real' detetctive and workign human homicides. She sees the ape case as a way of showing she can handle an explosive case. Little does she know what explosions will take place, as the DA's office is dealing with a different Hollywood murder. How the 2 cases wind up overlapping will leave the reader breathless and amazed at the minor degrees of separation. While the author may not have set out to do so, the book will leave you with questions to ponder like if we give tamed animals personality characteristics, like sign language, do they remaining an animal, ie property, or do they have their own entity and rights? For the book answers as much as it questions. Add to that a very solid mystery, and you literally have a page turner that you can NOT put down til the stunning ending! Do not skip this one- it is well worth reading!

This book is the start of a new Layla Remington mystery series, with the next book, 13 Stolen Girls, scheduled for release next Summer. I will be looking forward to the new book!


About the Author

Gil Reavill is a journalist, screenwriter, and playwright. Widely featured in magazines, Reavill is the author of Mafia Summit: J. Edgar Hoover, the Kennedy Brothers, and the Meeting That Unmasked the Mob, as well as Aftermath, Inc.: Cleaning Up After CSI Goes Home and the screenplay that became the 2006 film Dirty, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr. He lives in New York with his wife, Jean Zimmerman, and their daughter.

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