Shaker

A Novel

By: Scott Frank

Narrated by: Dion Graham

Meet Roy Cooper, stoic, unassuming “errand runner” for various New York criminals. Roy arrives in Los Angeles to shoot a man named Martin Shine a week after a powerful earthquake has knocked out cell service, buckled the freeways, and thrown L.A. into chaos. Roy doesn’t know who Shine is or why he has to die, but he does his job and does it well. Except for one thing: after the hit, Roy can’t find where he parked his car. Wandering the streets of North Hollywood, he stumbles upon a jogger getting mugged and beaten by four young gangbangers. Despite his attempt to simply put his head down and walk away, Roy winds up in the middle of another killing. Things get more complicated when the murdered jogger turns out to be a controversial mayoral candidate. Roy himself is shot twice, hospitalized in critical condition, and mistaken for a hero when a local resident leaks a video that goes viral.

Now meet the rest of the cast of characters, including Kelly Maguire, a disgraced LAPD detective with an anger management problem and strange feelings about L.A.’s newest hero; Science, the teenage gangbanger/shooter, who needs to keep Roy quiet about what he’s seen; Mayor Miguel Santiago, who finds himself facing accusations that he’s just had his opponent whacked; Albert Budin, Roy’s onetime mentor and one of the scariest, creepiest characters in recent crime fiction; and myriad criminals, politicians, and cops who all need Roy to disappear—preferably forever.

Finally, meet Scott Frank, who has created not just one of the most entertaining novels of the year but also one of the most surprising. This first novel is fun and funny as well as moving and textured, nuanced and powerful. Shaker is the debut work of fiction by a major new storyteller.

I 💗 LA

Great thriller with Los Angeles (my hometown) as a backdrop. The story and writing style reminded me of (2) other LA writers, Michael Connelly and Robert Crais. Great narration. If you love LA based stories, check this one out. FYI, there are a LOT of characters and plot strands, and not all of them are wrapped up, hence the (4) star overall rating. Otherwise, very entertaing.

LAME ENDING

Awful lot of build-up and flashback only to end up with a very unsatisfactory ending. Missed opportunity but narrator was great

Great Book...

Dion Graham has done it again, the voice of “The First 48 Hours” and several Eric Jerome Dickey audio books is as smooth as they come, teamed with Scott Frank this is a cant miss audio production!

earthquake and murders in Los Angeles

Roy is a free lance hit man from New York that goes to L.A to kill someone he doesn't know just after a major earthquake; then, he accidently wanders into another killing, which turns out to be a controversial candidate for mayor, and Roy then ends up in the hospital… and then suddenly ghosts of the past emerge and story plot gets frantic and accelerates to bring us to a “grand finale” full of drama (and blood).
A great first novel of Frank Scott, one of the most successful screenwriters of the past decade. The book has charisma and “sucks you in” very easily to become additive: characters are memorable and the plot captivating.
I found a few things that could be improved (flashbacks are too long and create at times gap between the past and the current events) , but this ,all in all , is a superb debut novel.

Loved loved love... until the end?

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the characters so much but the end was terrible. There was no ending! Did he live? Did the others? Is he in prison? WTH?