It opens with a an undercover cop is forced to witness the murder of his partner. A drug kingpin named Junior is the man arranged the hit. Val Duran is the cop. The killing is the catalyst that sends Val and "Heartbreaker" running. Val ends up in Hollywood, doing stunt work in B-movies, but his real life is much more hazardous. When he meets Kyle, the perfect girl-next-door, his habitual protective paranoia is immediately undone. Which means he doesn't see Junior coming after him. And he doesn't see how fast he's sinking into the morass of Kyle's deadly, dysfunctional family. Trying to help her, trying to keep her out of Junior's sights and himself out of Junior's line of fire, Val's life is moving either very close to a very bad end to, just as dangerously, very close to a small but very dazzling piece of paradise. With its cast of edgy eccentrics, its nonstop action, its unexpected, seamless combination of the macabre , the romantic, and the absurd, "Heartbreaker" promises to be one of the most audaciously entertaining reads of the season

ISBN: 0446608912