This gripping, darkly funny debut thriller from acclaimed screenwriter Scott Frank is "an L.A. story with a little bit of [Elmore] Leonard, a little bit of  Day of the Locust , and a whole lot of earthquakes” ( Interview ).  "[R]eally good . . . hit me like a bolt of lightning. If you like Don Winslow or Lou Berney, READ THIS BOOK!"--Stephen King via Twitter Roy Cooper, a stoic, unassuming “errand runner” for New York criminals, is finishing up a job in Los Angeles a week after a powerful earthquake has wreaked havoc on the city. Wandering the streets of North Hollywood while looking for his car, Roy runs into four teenage gangbangers and finds himself in the last place he wants to be: the middle of another killing. A mugging goes awry, and a passing jogger—who turns out to be a prominent mayoral candidate—dies. Roy himself is shot twice and hospitalized in critical condition. A local resident catches the whole thing on camera in a video that goes viral. And Roy, by some twist of fate, comes out looking like the hero, losing the hit man’s greatest weapon: anonymity. Roy’s newfound fame draws unlikely characters into his orbit: Kelly Maguire, a disgraced LAPD detective with an anger management problem; Science, a young gang leader who needs Roy to keep quiet about what he’s seen; Mayor Miguel Santiago, who faces accusations that he’s just had his opponent whacked; and, most chillingly, Albert Budin, a dangerous man from Roy’s past who’s just learned that his old acquaintance is still alive. "[ Shaker ] hit me like a bolt of lightning. . . . If you like Don Winslow or Lou Berney, READ THIS BOOK!" —Stephen King via Twitter “With its driving narrative, slim chapters, and sensational plotline,  Shaker  really moves.” — Newsday   “A total page-turner first novel from an award-winning screenwriter and an absolutely new voice to watch on the suspense scene.” — Library Journal  (starred review)   “A gripping, strikingly original debut novel. . . . Every one of the characters, in particular the teenage gangbangers, springs to vivid and tragic life.” — Booklist “Frank puts his career as one of the town’s best screenwriters to excellent use in his[A] sterling debut novel. . . . Shaker boasts a kind of unrestrained, manic energy reminiscent of the great Jim Thompson.” — Providence Journal “Frank captures the underbelly of Los Angeles’s streets to perfection with sharply written prose and biting dialogue. . . . A richly layered crime story.” — BookPage SCOTT FRANK  began his career writing such films as Little Man Tate and Dead Again . His screenplay adaptation for Get Shorty was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and a Writers Guild Award for adapted screenplay. Frank’s adaptation Out of Sight received an Academy Award nomination and won a Writers Guild Award. Frank has also written the screenplays for Heaven’s Prisoners, Minority Report, The Interpreter, Marley & Me, and The Wolverine. He wrote and made his directorial debut in 2007 with The Lookout, which won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Most recently, Frank adapted and directed A Walk Among the Tombstones . Shaker is his first novel. One Five days after the quake, Roy Cooper boarded USAir flight 626, LGA to LAX, to pay a visit to a man named Martin Shine who had been, according to Harvey’s brief message earlier that morning, “hiding out with his Armenian whore somewhere in North Hollywood.” Roy packed a bag, unsure as to whether or not his kit would make it through security, and took a bus to the airport. At LaGuardia, he watched the ground crew out the window and, for a second, pictured his dad down there on the tarmac, leaning against a trailer full of luggage. The man in his thick glasses with the black frames, all the time grinning, pointing his index finger like a gun as he said hello to anybody who happened by. Roy stared until they called his flight over the PA and the image vanished. When he checked in, the tall gentleman behind the counter with what Roy was sure had to be dyed red hair and wearing what Roy felt equally sure was eye shadow, somehow got Roy to admit that he’d never flown before. “Never?” the guy asked, one hand on his chest. “Never ever?” “No, sir,” Roy said in his usual polite tone. He’d been inside lots of planes, but never up in the air. “Well, then, let’s see if we can’t find you the best seat in the house,” the counter agent said as he began typing away at the terminal in front of him. The guy was smiling at Roy the way everyone smiled at Roy. Like he was a child or mildly retarded. Once they were in the air, Roy, bumped up to First Class, watched a flight attendant with real red hair and a nametag that said her name was MEG work her ass off, passing out first drinks, then trays of some bright yellow cat vomit that, according to the little menu they gave him, was supposed to be some kind of curried chicken. Roy sipped his Sprite and was trying to figure out exactly where to p