Below the Line: A Hollywood Crime Novel

For Fans of Hollywood Noir and novels by Elmore Leonard and Michael Connolly comes a new crime novel from a Hollywood insider and true crime writer.

Former Detroit homicide detective Edwin Blake broke into show business as a script consultant on cop movies. Now living in Los Angeles five years later, Blake is suffering from clinical depression, is no longer in demand in film and TV - and money is short. But things look up when Blake gets a call from wealthy, oddball producer, Jason "JP" Perry, telling him he wants to hire him for a future cable TV series. But there's a catch. First he wants Blake to locate the missing ex-wife of a "friend of a friend" from Chicago. Blake will be working for free on a promise - a typical Hollywood hustle. But Blake's not the only one on the case. Hired gun Warren Poole has also been contracted to find the woman.

When a corrupt Hollywood producer, an ex-cop with a conscience, and a career criminal without one all have the same quarry, trouble is bound to ensue. And it does, with remarkably satisfying results, thanks to Blake's girlfriend, Carla, a former roller derby queen who has turned more than her own life around. Filled with rich characters both easy to love and hate, BELOW THE LINE skewers Hollywood in a deliciously fresh way.

With his expert eye for true crime detail and his prowess at executing elaborate plot, Cauffiel gives us a thrilling ride on the dark side of Hollywood that lingers long after the credits roll.


Author: Lowell Cauffiel
Publisher: Arcade Crimewise
Published: 05/02/2023
Pages: 312
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.06h x 5.98w x 1.18d
ISBN: 9781956763485


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 03/27/2023

About the Author
LOWELL CAUFFIEL is the best-selling author of nine books and an award-winning veteran investigative reporter. His research has taken him everywhere from the President's private living quarters in the White House to the dangerous confines of urban dope dens. Cauffiel's three crime novels have explored diverse characters and settings that range from a Detroit shakedown crew in Marker to the glitzy, corrupt underworld of the National Football League in Toss, which he co- authored with former Superbowl quarterback Boomer Esiason. His five nonfiction crime books have covered a monstrous, homicidal patriarch in the New York Times best-selling House of Secrets; a pair of female serial killers in Forever and Five Days, and a calculating criminal justice instructor who tried to design the perfect crime with the murder of his TV anchorwoman wife in Eye of the Beholder. Cauffiel's first true crime book, Masquerade, the story of a Grosse Pointe psychologist's deadly double life, was a national best seller. He has appeared in a dozen documentaries about his books, MSNBC, Court TV and A&E. Cauffiel has written and produced documentaries for the Discovery Channel and CNBC and has adapted his first book Masquerade to film. He now lives in Los Angeles, where he writes feature films and creates shows for television.