Lights Out

by Jason Starr

Overview

Fom the Anthony Award-winning author of THE FOLLOWER

What if your dreams don’t come true?

Ryan Rossetti and Jake Thomas were the two Major League-bound rivals on their high school baseball team, until Ryan blew out his pitching arm and landed a ten-dollar-an-hour life as a house painter. Lucky Jake made it all the way, and he and his 10 million dollar signing bonus are heading back for a publicity-motivated homecoming weekend.

But he’s got a nasty surprise in store: Ryan is involved in an intense, addictive relationship with Jake’s fiancé Christina, who now faces a choice between love in a Brooklyn tenement or a heartless marriage on Easy Street. None of the three have any idea what’s about to play out on the streets they once called home.

PRAISE FOR JASON STARR’S LIGHTS OUT

“Sizzles with street-wise dialogue and furious emotional energy.”
Library Journal

“Wickedly entertaining.”
Booklist

“A fast, furious page-turner from the git-go. Starr’s got a hip style and an ear for crackling dialogue.”
Jeffery Deaver

Product Details

BN ID:	2940164093952
Publisher:	Jason Starr
Publication date:	05/27/2020
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
Sales rank:	927,649
File size:	401 KB

About the Author

JASON STARR is the international bestselling author of many crime novels, psychological thrillers, and graphic novels. His thrillers include Cold Caller, Nothing Personal, Fake I.D., Hard Feelings, Tough Luck, Twisted City, Lights Out, The Follower, Panic Attack, Savage Lane and Fugitive Red. Additionally, he's the author of the acclaimed Pack series of urban fantasy novels. His work in comics for Marvel and D.C., includes Batman, The Punisher, Ant-Man and the entire Wolverine Max series. He's also written many original comics and graphic novels including Red Border and Casual Fling for AWA/Upshot. He has co-written several novels with Ken Bruen for Hard Case Crime, and he's the writer of the official Gotham novels, based on the hit TV series. Several of Starr's novels are in development for film, TV and theater. His books have been translated into fourteen language and he's won the Anthony Award twice, as well as the Barry Award. His new novel, Curved Glass, will be published in 2021. He lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
The glitzy world of major league baseball meets the mean streets of Brooklyn in Jason Starr's noir thriller, Lights Out -- a novel about two Canarsie baseball prodigies: one who made it to the big leagues and another who, plagued by injury, now works as a housepainter and still lives with his bickering parents in the old neighborhood.

Jake "J.T." Thomas, multimillionaire outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates and reigning National League batting champion, is returning home to Brooklyn for what he believes to be a quiet weekend visit. But old friends, family members, and fans of all ages have come out of the woodwork to get a glimpse of the handsome young superstar. Huge banners welcome J.T., and news of his arrival is on every local television channel -- which infuriates Ryan Rossetti to no end. Rossetti, an old teammate of J.T.'s who once had just as much major league potential until an elbow injury ended his playing days forever, sees in J.T. everything that he rightfully deserves but doesn't have -- fame, fortune, adoration, etc. Rossetti, however, does possess one thing that Thomas never will: the love of Christina Mercado, J.T.'s high school sweetheart and current fiancée. This is the weekend that Christina is going to break up with the womanizing megastar and finally end their fiasco of a relationship so that she can start her life with Rossetti. But instead of ending it as planned, Christina and J.T. set a wedding date! Thus begins a series of events that includes psychotic crackhead gangbangers, more than a few sex scandals, and multiple bloody murders.

Lights Out moves like an out-of-control nitrous oxide–injected muscle car with no brakes. Strap yourself in and prepare for one helluva wild ride… Paul Goat Allen

In this strangely fascinating riff off classic noir, baseball slugger Jake Thomas gets a hero's welcome on a quick trip home to Canarsie. With millions in endorsements on the line, he's anxious to announce a wedding date with his high school sweetheart, Christina, hoping to counteract a statutory rape claim that's about to go public. But his fianc e has been seeing former pitcher Ryan Rossetti, who blew out his arm and now works a dead-end job as a house painter. Insanely jealous of the "J.T. fever" sweeping the hood, the self-involved Ryan is determined to keep Christina for himself. Starr (Twisted City) is a master at portraying Brooklyn as a dark corner of hell (and even gives genre fans a taste of one of the sexual obsessions of past noir master David Goodis), but J.T and Ryan prove almost too unpleasant to take. When the ex-con Saiquan comes into play, riding along for some payback on a gang shooting, the plot jumps into overdrive and heads mercilessly for Starr's always bleak finish line. Author tour. (Sept.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

High school baseball stars Jake Thomas and Ryan Rossetti were destined to make it out of the mean streets of Brooklyn and into the major leagues, but a career-ending injury to Ryan's pitching arm sends him back to living with his parents and making $10 an hour as a house painter. Charmed Jake becomes one of the most promising young players, earning a $10 million signing bonus-and an ego to match. Jake returns home for a celebration weekend, mainly to announce his engagement to high school sweetheart Christina Mercado, not out of love but to negate the bad publicity from a sex scandal lurking in his past. Meanwhile, Christina has fallen in love with Ryan and must choose between living in Brooklyn with a house painter or a loveless future on Easy Street. Marking his hardcover debut, Starr's latest crime novel (after Bust, coauthored with Ken Bruen) sizzles with streetwise dialog and furious emotional energy. His latest contribution to the world of crime fiction is a home run. Highly recommended. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 5/1/06.]-Ken Bolton, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Starr raises the stakes from his usual sour-noir entries (Twisted City, 2004, etc.) by making his entire cast despicable. Every time Ryan Rossetti thinks about Jake Thomas, he wants to puke. Back in Canarsie High, both of them were hot prospects dogged by baseball scouts. Sure enough, Jake's coming off a .351 season with the Pirates and looking forward to a zillion-dollar free-agent deal next year. But Ryan, his pitching career ended in the minors by a popped ligament, is making ten dollars an hour as a housepainter. His one consolation is that Christina Mercado, Jake's childhood-sweetheart-turned-neglected-fiancee, has agreed to leave Jake for Ryan during the star's celebratory visit to his hometown. In another corner of Brooklyn, ex-con Saiquan Harrington vows vengeance against Jermaine Carter, the fellow Crip who shot Saiquan's homeboy Desmond Johnson and left him paralyzed. Meanwhile, Jake, who can barely remember Christina's last name, learns that he's going to need an uplifting human-interest story fast in order to neutralize an impending statutory-rape charge. The Rube Goldberg plot hurls these raging citizens together with all the energy of a nuclear-powered kaleidoscope. It's obvious that the end will be violent, but which specific acts of violence are anyone's guess. Noir fiction has long mired ordinary guys in impossible situations. Starr's distinctive contribution is to make virtually everyone involved seethe with resentment from the opening scene. The result is scorching.

Kirkus Reviews

Lights Out has the New York sound, the energy, dialogue that's on the beat…. Read it and you'll go hunting for Jason Starr's other books, I promise.” —Elmore Leonard, author of The Hot Kid

“Lights Out is a fast, furious page-turner. This book is a huge treat.” —Jeffery Deaver, author of The Cold Moon

“Starr's latest crime novel sizzles with streetwise dialogue and furious emotional energy…Highly recommended.” —Library Journal

“A wickedly entertaining ride down a dead-end street.” —Booklist

“A welcome addition to [Starr's] body of quality work.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“Jason Starr is hypnotically good—-if you miss him, you're missing some of the best new writing there is.” —Lee Child, author of One Shot: A Jack Reacher Novel

“Starr's finest work to date...a dark, brooding character study that falls somewhere between The Wanderers by Richard Price and Dennis Lehane's Mystic River.” —Bookreporter

From the Publisher