Clarissa Cartwright, Enigma's Model of the Year and the planet's most famous beauty, is about to take the stage wearing a fortune in jewels and not much else. In the wings, a motley crew of bumbling crooks is scheming to use a naive inside man to make off with the biggest heist of their careers: five and a half million dollars in precious stones, used to create the world's most gorgeous--and expensive--piece of lingerie.
But fashion, like makeup, hides much beneath the surface. And in the world of high crime, even the best laid plans can go hilariously astray. Mix the glitz and glamour of the highest of high fashion with with a team of crooks that would have trouble stealing a sandwich from a deli, and all bets are off.
When the robbers find themselves pursued by not only the intimidating ex-cop tasked with protecting the world's most valuable piece of lingerie, but also by Clarissa's insanely jealous and mobbed-up ex-boyfriend, things are bound to get ugly. Especially when Clarissa decides she's had quite enough of being an object and decides to turn the tables on both the crooks and the fashion world she rules from on high.
ICE CHEST is J.D. Rhoades' loving homage to the comic crime novels of his literary heroes like Donald Westlake and Carl Hiaasen, combining the page-turning skill of his Jack Keller thrillers with the excitement and humor of "Ocean's Eleven".
Industry Reviews
"Every one of these characters could star in his or her own thriller...together they comprise an ensemble that delivers nonstop entertainment. Does Rhoades do comic caper novels better than he does high-octane thrillers? Too close to call." --Booklist (starred review) "(A) winning caper novel...The grab is made, and that's when the fun really begins...zany characters keep the plot twisting." --Publishers Weekly "Ice Chest has an early Coen brothers vibe about it, combing laugh-out-loud humor with outbursts of violence, which often have a dark-humor quality to them. Think Raising Arizona meets Fargo meets Ocean's Eleven... against the backdrop of an over-the-top Victoria's Secret-style fashion show." --Florida Times-Union "A deftly crafted and impressively skillful novel that holds and keeps the reader's riveted attention from first page to last, "Ice Chest" will prove to be an enduringly popular addition to community library collections. Very highly recommended reading for all who enjoy an action-packed thriller by a true master of the genre." --Midwest Book Review "A whip-smart and really funny crime novel. The dialogue is snappy and entirely believable. There are twists and turns galore and enough heroes to populate a war movie. If you only read one crime novel this year, make it this one. You will be entirely entertained." --Manhattan Book Review Praise for the novels of J.D. Rhoades: "Keller fans will be palpitating at the prospect of a new installment, and those palpitations won't ease a bit once the first page is turned...For fans of high-octane thrillers that don't ignore character development, Rhoades belongs on the same reading list with Stephen Hunter, Lee Child, and Randy Wayne White." --Booklist on DEVILS AND DUST "Jack is a fun character to root for and more than a little reminiscent of Jack Reacher. This is a fast and fun read, one that will appeal to fans not only of Keller but also to readers of Lee Child and other act first, ask questions later tough guys." --Library Journal "Excellent...a real page-turner." --Mystery Scene on DEVILS AND DUST "A fine example of redneck noir. Nicely crafted...if you hail from certain dark corners of the sunny South, it's the next best thing to a trip home." --The Washington Post "Think of Keller as a similarly tortured, contemporary version of William Munny in Clint Eastwood's 'Unforgiven'." --Booklist "Rhoades slaps this supercharged crime-fiction debut into overdrive in the first paragraph and never lets up through nearly 300 pages of non-stop action." --Booklist (starred review) on THE DEVIL'S RIGHT HAND "Enjoyable...Rhoades seems to have observed and remembered all the seedy details of life outside the centers of urban and suburban life as we know it. Nobody could totally invent this stuff." --Chicago Tribune "The Devil's Right Hand blasts right out of the chute and keeps up the pace until the final paragraph. Steeped in Southern sense of place, the reader can feel the heat and humidity and smell the cordite hanging in the air. J.D. Rhoades writes action as well as anybody in the business, and bail bondsman Jack Keller is a winner." --C.J. Box, author of Trophy Hunt "Spare, tense and violent, this is a debut that will turn other writers green with envy. Jack Keller is a sure-fire star of the new generation of hard-boiled heroes." --Stephen Booth, author of Blind to the Bones "Riveting as the rack of a sawn-off shotgun, The Devil's Right Hand is a novel of pace and power, locked and loaded from the start. Bail enforcer Jack Keller, a damaged gulf war veteran, moves the heart in unexpected ways. Keller's quarry Raymond, a drug dealer bent on revenge, pledges 'no more water, but the fire next time'--and it's the fire we get on almost every page of a book that is positively aflame with action. Let's hope that J.D. Rhoades and Jack Keller are due to deliver more of the fire and soon." --Ken Bruen, author of The Guards "Crisp dialogue and the author's deft use of local color support a narrative driven as effectively by characters as by events." --Publishers Weekly on SAFE AND SOUND
