It's a bloodthirsty town, Hollywood. No matter how popular you are, there's always someone who'd be happier if you were dead. And in some cases, you can be such a bastard, everyone would be happier if you were dead.

Barry Gerber, one of the most hated men in Hollywood, is a no-show for a red carpet event. The next morning he turns up dead, killed in such a bizarre way that neither Detectives Mike Lomax nor Terry Biggs nor anyone in Forensics has ever seen anything like it before. Two days later, the prime suspect — another despised show-business bad boy — is found murdered in the same sadistic manner.

The list of suspects then becomes as long as the credits in a summer blockbuster. Everyone hated the murdered men. Biggs jokes that this could be an elaborate public service effort to make Hollywood a better place to live and work. But he and Lomax soon find that all jokes are off as they wade through a daunting number of leads to uncover who will be the next victim. What they stumble upon is a motive far more primal than they had ever imagined.

Fast-paced, razor-sharp, and intensely funny, Bloodthirsty reunites Lomax and Biggs — the mystery genre's new dynamic duo.

"Karp's second comic police thriller (after 2006's The Rabbit Factory), set in the glitzy world of Hollywood moguls and wannabes, is an uneven blend of gallows humor and gore. When mega-producer Barry Gerber turns up drained of blood in a trash can, LAPD detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs, who had been hoping to enter a deal with the victim for a movie adaptation of one of their high-profile cases, are assigned to investigate. Their workload doubles when the A-list star of Gerber's last blockbuster, actor Damian Hedge, is abducted, apparently by the same person responsible for the producer's murder. Karp intersperses Lomax's snappy first-person narration with scenes from the criminal's perspective, eliminating most of the mystery and making the motive for the crimes obvious early on. Though brisk and cynical, this depiction of Tinseltown falls short of the standard set by Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"[J]ust the right blend of belly laughs and suspense....Karp's second offering is every bit as funny and fast-paced as The Rabbit Factory." Booklist (Starred Review)

"Bloodthirsty is worthwhile as much for the repartee between its main characters as it is for its mystery plot....[Bloodthirsty] will further Karp's reputation as a humorous mystery writer in the vein of Elmore Leonard, Kinky Friedman and Carl Hiaasen." BookReporter.com

"Marshall Karp needs a blurb from me like Uma needs a facelift. This guy is the real deal, and Bloodthirsty is a first class, fast, funny and fabulous read by a terrific writer. Great entertainment, highly recommended to one and all." John Lescroart, bestselling author of The Hunt Club and The Suspect

"Marshall Karp is the Woody Allen of the murder mystery. He's up there with Carl Hiaasen and Donald Westlake and Janet Evanovich — smart, fast-paced, clever, and really, really funny." Joseph Finder, New York Times bestselling author of Killer Instinct and Paranoia

Fast-paced, razor-sharp, and intensely funny, Karp's newest novel reunites detectives Lomax and Biggs — the mystery genre's new dynamic duo — as they try to discover who is killing Hollywood hotshots.

An award-winning advertising executive, Marshall Karp has also written for stage, screen, and television. His play, Squabbles, published by Samuel French, has been performed in more than 800 theaters around the world. He has been a writer, producer, and executive producer on TV shows for all the major networks. His first feature film, Just Looking, directed by Jason Alexander, was released in 2000. Having spent time on both East and West Coasts, Marshall Karp now lives in upstate New York, where he is at work on the third title in his Lomax-Biggs mystery series.