To Live and Blank in L.A.

Mr. Blank
by Justin Robinson

It's the end of the world.  Again.  Maybe.  In any case, it's quite possibly the end for Mr. Blank, the nameless agent who moonlights as a henchman for every secret group in L.A..  Why?  Because they put ads in the paper and he has to pay the bills.  Which is problematic, when half of them are at war with the other over arcane artifacts, alien technology and ancient grudges.  Somewhere around the time a manchurian candidate tries to smash his brains in with a curious home-made meteor hammer on a routine delivery, it seems the jig is up.  From there, the chase is on as Mr. Blank follows the trail of the one conspiracy aimed at removing his head in a sea of routine and malevolent L.A. conspiracies already in progress.  Have the servants of Shub-internet, V.E.N.U.S., the Masons, the Templars, the Clone Wolves, the russian mafia and, of course, the Little Green Men finally caught on to his game?  Or are they patsies in some larger conspiracy that only he has the perspective to untangle?  Mr. Blank uses all his henching, fast-talking, cryptid-taming and dame-rescuing skills to keep his bosses at cross purposes, off balance and disinclined to kill him while he desperately sorts fact from fiction in order to put it all together.  Who is Mr. Blank?  Which conspiracy wants him dead?  The only thing we know for sure, is it isn't the vampires.  Because, as everyone should already know, vampires are bullshit.

- - -

Mr. Blank was a whole lot of fun.  The conspiracies were clever, both in name and description, and the action relentless.  One of my favorite things about Justin Robinson's writing is his focus on keeping the plot moving, taking time only to snark when appropriate.  And considering this is a story about a sardonic, skeptical henchman on the run from the fantastic, the snark is fast and facetious.  And I loved the end, the who in the "who done it" which I won't spoil.

The dark, secret side of L.A. is considerably stranger, more dangerous and more incompetent than you might imagine.  Buy this book today and find the secrets that only a conspiracy insider would know.  But maybe use cash.  You never know who's watching and the truth can be a dangerous thing.