Sam Holt Books
Actor Sam Holt has packed in Packard, the TV detective he played for several years to much acclaim and lots of money. But success has had its downside: Holt is so closely identified with Packard that he can't get hired to play anyone else. Suddenly, though, someone seems to have a new role for Holt: the role of Dead Body. Years of having watched stunt-drivers do their stuff help Holt avoid becoming a grease-spot on the San Diego Freeway, but his Volvo will never play the violin again. And if Holt can't figure out where the screenwriters are going with this one, he's not going to get a chance for a second take.
Sam Holt spent years playing Packard, everyone's favorite TV-detective; he's got no desire to play sleuth in real life. But when a long-lost pal calls with a rant about conspiracies, sinister cargo ships and hit men, and then gets poisoned at a party full of Holt's closest friends, there doesn't seem to be a lot of choice. Sure, Holt could leave it to the cops and cross his fingers. But Packard would never have taken such a weenie's way out. And Holt, to his astonishment, finds that he can't take it, either.
Sam Holt played TV-detective Jack Packard for five years, and he doesn't want to do it again. Not in a movie, not in dinner theater, not even in a commercial for the American Cancer Society. But his tough-minded girlfriend ( It s not about you ) has carried the day, and now he s stuck on an isolated island, hunting clues to a cancer cure alongside Charlie Chan, Miss Marple, and Sherlock Holmes. The script says they re doomed to failure (translation: Donate money to cancer research). And when a genuine murder crops up, their sleuthing isn t likely to my much more successful; after all, these folks are not famous detectives, they just play em on TV. But with the cops cut off by a storm and a killer stalking the island, Holt and Co. must play detective for real.
He?s got buckets of money and two gorgeous girlfriends, but actor Sam Holt nevertheless deserves a little sympathy. He?s no longer playing Packard, the TV-detective who made him famous, but he can?t drum up another gig. And now some joker who looks like Holt is playing Packard in commercials for a chain of cut-rate grocery stores. No wonder Holt?s a little peeved. Peevishness slides into paranoia when the joker gets his head bashed in just steps from Holt?s front door. Holt may never have been a real private-eye, but with bad guys gunning for him, he?s got to channel Packard and ride to his own rescue.