Below the Line

In between gigs as a Hollywood movie Teamster, self-proclaimed sailing bum Mike Millek moonlights as a freelance, armed chauffeur to the stars. When Mike arrives one night to pick up his deadbeat client, rap music producer Pays Lee, at his private jet Mike finds him freshly murdered with a satchel full of cash. Mike makes the critical decision to take what is owed him before reporting anything to the police. More money than he ever expected, this turns out to be Mike's biggest payday in his life, but not without consequences. Opening this Pandora's box not only costs him his best friend's life and leads him down a road of deception with his newly found love Molly, but thrusts them both into a dangerous conspiracy entrenched in the sordid underbelly of the Hollywood power elite. Praise for BELOW THE LINE: "If Michael Connolly were an ex-Hollywood agent who knew the cream of show biz and the sour milk of its lowlifes like he knows the back of his brass-knuckled hand, he might have created Mike Millek and his foot-to-the-floor dark ride, Below the Line. Set along the seams of the real movie business—as its street-savvy author Jankowski has lived and savored it—with an A-list casting call of characters so real they're scary, Mike Millek is as hardboiled as a shark in hot water and his Los Angeles is a City of Angles. So if you take your java noir with a double shot of espresso, take just one bite of Below the Line and it will reel you in...hook, line and sinker!" —Rupert Holmes, multiple Edgar and Tony-winning author, creator of the AMC-TV series Remember WENN, and author of Where the Truth Lies "Batten down the hatches for a hard-boiled storm. Below the Line is an impressive debut, a suspenseful Nautical Noir on the fringe of Hollywood's dream factory. Taut, vivid tough-guy pulp in the tradition of John D. MacDonald and Mickey Spillane." —John Shepphird, Shamus Award-winning author "Babes, boats and betrayal! Steve Jankowski's thrilling debut crime novel jets through the gritty sets of Hollywood to the deadly Pacific in a riveting tale worthy of Travis McGee." —Lawrence Maddox, author of Fast Bang Booze