A book with an internet pedigree, "Jack Wakes Up" saw the ink of a press only after its author put it up as a free podcast on his website in 2006. Harwood effectively reads from his manuscript with a hard and edgy delivery, giving it a cool, noirish energy, with character delineation by way of inflection. Which makes the author an effective audio book reader for a book about central figure Jack Palms, an actor.

Once upon a time in Jack Palms' life, meaning a few years ago, he made a movie called "Shake 'Em Down." From the income, he bought his dream car for his hometown hills of San Francoisco, a '66 Mustang Fastback. He then managed to support himself with residual checks, but nothing new--not a sequel, not a commercial, nothing--came his way to further his career and give a bounce to his bank balance. As any thespian will tell you, residuals for one lone project have a way of drying up. You've got to feed the filmography if you've any hope of making a career out of it.

Having gone through a heavy period of drug addiction, Jack at least had the fortitude and discipline to clean himself up, and that difficult decision has stuck. Good boy. Regular workouts at the gym have added strength and muscle to his formerly wasted body, and he eats well.

Now, though, he's getting a little tired of his non-paying celebrity that doesn't seem to fade. Day-to-day recognition only reminds him that he's a one-trick-pony, and an early has-been. Still, the recognition from his one film, in a town with few actors, has its virtues. Which is what his old pal Ralph has come back into his life to exploit.

The gig is easy enough, and the pay adequate to help dig himself out of his financial hole for awhile, at least the way Ralph, a scammer from way back, makes it sound. All Jack has to do is to add some marquee value to Ralph's job playing tour guide for a pack of coke-happy Czechs with a role of dough. Sounds easy enough until the out-of-towners in an upper floor suite of a very decent hotel shake him down when he arrives. With jokes about the title of his film, yet. But these boys, as we will soon learn, aren't your stereotypical goons.

Michal, Al, David and Vlade have generous attitudes and want to see the city. But when they hear about Jack's connection to a Colombian drug cartel, their interests take a turn. Now, all they want to know is how much they can get. "'You don't know the community we can connect to,' Al keeps saying." Which lights up Jack's visions of a score far greater than the one Ralph projected.

This in mind, the first stop on the tour is The Coast, Tony Vitelli's place where the club owner himself spots Jack and offers to pick up the first round for him and his friends. Oh, so warm and friendly--so you wouldn't think it's going to lead to mayhem when Vitelli replaces Castroneves, his Colombian supplier, with his new Russian source in order to take over the local market. And, Tony can hardly suspect he's buying drinks for guys planning to move in on his territory with a drug operation of their own.

The international clash of South Americans, Czechs and ex-KGB Russians will leave so many dead bodies on the streets and dance floors you'd think San Francisco had another earthquake. And the tsunami of blood starts with Ralph's murder, driving the still famous actor to take any risk to find out what venal madman among so many candidates was responsible.

Now fully engaged in a lethal game of murder and mystery, Jack's ray of beauty and promise is that he winds up in the arms of Maxine, the gorgeous babe behind Vitteli's bar who transports him to pleasures of the flesh he's never known before and a betrayal that brings him down like no cold-turkey withdrawal ever did.

The audio version of "Jack Wakes Up" is available as free chapter readings at http://sethharwood.com/jack-wakes-up.

It's a rough, gangster-infested ride headed for a showdown with more blood output than a butcher's convention. But there's good and bad along

the narrative trail. While the writing is well paced and loaded with distinct, colorful character, I came to wish the scope of the tour group's investigative activity amounted to more variation of setting. The number of times that Jack and the Czechs load up in their hotel suite and pay visits to one nightclub or another in a sort of yo-yo action had me becoming aware of the repetitive pattern. The good part, however, is good enough to put that carp aside.

Jack is not only liked by the band of Czechs, they adore and admire him, which puts a unique humanistic stamp on the otherwise brutal proceedings. Vlade is an outstanding creation that the reader will come to love--whose support of his new, American friend is forgiving to a fault, unshatterable through danger and pain, and endearingly hilarious despite the criminality that motivates him. The relationship among these rough and tumble men is worth the price of the book, whose noirish mystery story marks a solid new entry on the scene for its first-time, resourceful author.