Jonah Eastman teams up with a cadre of Jersey devils for another in the series of Eric Dezenhall's acclaimed crisis manager mysteries.

Shakedown Beach rips open the slats of the Atlantic City boardwalk to impart the big lesson of American politics: When forced to look into one's soul and confront the painful truths of murder, corruption and sexual depravity, don't be an idiot -- hire the nastiest operatives money can buy and duck, dodge and spin to November.

THE GOVERNOR: "Rebound" Rothman -- married, family-values New Jersey Republican with White House fantasies, a terrible secret, and a controversial position on young interns: He's for 'em.

THE TART: Simone Lava, the voluptuous Miss Little Egg Harbor Township. Rebound keeps her hidden away in Atlantic City's seedy Celebrity Motel where she practices waving like a First Lady -- a title she's been promised, if she'll just lay low during election season.

THE FIXER: Chief Willie Thundercloud, an ex-wrestler who runs the Jersey shore's most esoteric damage-control firm. Chief Willie digs up the macabre truth about the governor.

The POLLSTER: Jonah Eastman, maverick political strategist raised by his mobster grandfather, who gave Rebound his start. Jonah knows only one thing can save the congenitally deceitful governor: A whopping, heartfelt lie.

Praise for Shakedown Beach

"Reads like a Carl Hiaasen novel hijacked from South Florida and plopped down in South Jersey...a well-observed thriller."
- THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

"Dezenhall's best so far...entertaining, a witty tale of twisted ambitions, buried skeletons, campaign chicanery and a thug who just might be descended from the Jersey Devil."
- COURIER POST (NEW JERSEY)

"Dezenhall is the most mordantly funny writer not named Westlake, with an ear for the zinger, a lie detector that makes mincemeat of politicians and spinmeisters, and the ability to plot like Machiavelli."
- KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)

Further information on this novel can be found at www.dezbooks.net