The Rabbit Factory: Summary and book reviews of The Rabbit Factory by Marshall Karp, plus links to an excerpt from The Rabbit Factory and a biography of Marshall Karp.
The Rabbit Factory
by Marshall Karp
Hardcover: Apr 2006,
632 pages.
Paperback: Mar 2007,
550 pages.
The hilarious and suspenseful introduction of Detectives Mike Lomax
and Terry Biggs.
Welcome to Familyland, an offshoot of Lamaar Studios. Once a
small, Southern California animation house, it has grown into an
entertainment conglomerate encompassing movies, television, music,
video games, and a sprawling theme park.
When an actor portraying Familyland's beloved mascot,
Rambunctious Rabbit, is brutally murdered on park grounds, Lamaar
executives are worried that the idyllic image of '50s America
represented in Familyland will be shattered. They ask Mike Lomax and
his partner Terry Biggs, the LAPD detectives assigned to solve the
case, to keep the circumstances surrounding the death of their
mascot quiet.
When a second Lamaar employee is killed, Lomax and Biggs uncover
a conspiracy to destroy Familyland and settle an unknown vendetta.
Still under pressure to keep the case away from the public eye, the
detectives are met with a third murder – and an outrageous demand:
Anyone who associates with Lamaar – employees, customers, anyone –
will be killed.
Bringing a fresh duo of cops to the thriller set, The Rabbit
Factory is both suspenseful and satiric; a taut mystery wrapped
in sharp, comedic prose.
The Rabbit Factory is a big, fun read leavened with just enough pathos to balance the humor. No doubt Marshall, who cut his teeth writing TV commercials (which are rarely longer than 60 seconds) could write a novel in less than 600 pages - but not when he's writing in the voice of Mike, the narrator and chief protagonist of The Rabbit Factory, who has a story to tell and is not going to be hurried while telling it - and what a story it is, replete with a large cast of lovable characters, a high body-count (but without any graphically violent scenes) and some well placed stabs at the ethical values of big corporations. (Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
Kirkus Reviews
A bloated piece of work, devoted more to the pleasure of reading than the offer of a dazzling denouement.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Biggs and the FBI have their work cut out for them in a clever plot that will keep readers guessing to the very end.
Booklist - Allison Block
Starred Review. Like the best of Donald Westlake and Carl Hiaasen, The Rabbit Factory is deftly plotted and deliciously askew.
James Patterson
Marshall Karp could well be the Carl Hiaasen of Los Angeles--only I think he's even funnier. The Rabbit Factory will touch your funny bone, and your heart.
Karp's 1st time novelist status belies his experience as a writer - gleaned from
many years as an advertising copyrighter on accounts such as Coca-Cola, Gillette
and Paine Webber (remember the "Thank you Paine Webber ads?), followed by
further time spent as a writer/producer on TV sitcoms such as "Amen", "Baby
Talk" and "Working It Out". He has also written a play, "Squabbles", which
has been performed in over 500 theaters, and a movie, "Just Looking", that was
released in 2000.
He was born and brought up in and around New York City. Graduating with a
BA in English during the Vietnam era he spent six months on active duty with the
National Guard in Missouri, before signing up as an advertising copyrighter.
He spent the next 22 years in the ad business, dabbling on the side with
scriptwriting before eventually making the break into full-time scriptwriting.
However, that required him to work in LA and he didn't want to uproot his family
from the East Coast, so eventually he moved back East just in time to catch the
start of the...
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(556 words).
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly
James Patterson
