Shakedown Beach : A Mystery

The Governor: Gardner "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, former pro wrestler who runs the Jersey Shore's most ruthless damage control firm. The chief 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.

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.

“A cheeky political satire...Here's proof that politics is funny when it isn't even trying.” —Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times Book Review

“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)