Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Bottom Feeders
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.johnshepphird.com/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Male.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Feature film writer and director. TVG network, creative director of on-air promotions.
AWARDS:Shamus Award.
WRITINGS
Contributor of stories to Alfred Hitchcock Mystery. Creator of the iPrivateEye series for the Hook app.
SIDELIGHTS
A feature film writer and director, John Shepphird has several eclectic shows to his credit. He also writes thriller novels. He is creative director of on-air promotions for the horse racing network, TVG, and has worked on the SyFy Channel’s Jersey Shore Shark Attack, Chubacabra Terror, and ABC Family’s I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. As an author, he has created the iPrivateEye series for the Hooked app of flash-fiction told through text messages, and he has published private-investigator stories for Alfred Hitchcock Mystery. His “Shill” trilogy of novellas steeped in murder, deception, and depravity were inspired by noir master James M. Cain.
The Shill and Kill the Shill
Shepphird’s 2015 The Shill starts the trilogy of novellas. In the story, Jane Inness is a struggling actress attending acting class. She meets Cooper, a handsome new actor who admits he’s a con man with a marvelous scheme. To play along, Jane must pose as a rich heiress. But her true identity threatens to surface and the deception leads to murder.
The next book, Kill the Shill, continues the game. With the scam busted, Jane is left holding the bag, and millions of dollars are missing. Because she knows all about the scam, Jane is a liability whose life is threatened. But Jane has an audacious will to survive and uses her own plan and skills at deception against her enemies.
Beware the Shill
In Beware the Shill, Jane is battered and bruised but not out yet. She managed to turn the tables on the swindlers, now she must seal the deal in taking down the deadly adversary. This story was nominated for the 2017 Anthony Award for Best Novella.
Talking about the trilogy to Scott Adlerberg on the Do Some Damage website, Shepphird described Jane’s character: “Jane is inspired by actresses I’ve known, some of which I’ve dated, driven by blind ambition. I’m drawn to crime fiction that embraces flawed but sympathetic protagonists. Jane’s … blind ambition makes her justify that impersonating a carefree heiress in [Cooper’s] scheme is simply playing a ‘role’ as opposed to actually being an accomplice. That fateful decision is what puts everything in motion.”
Bottom Feeders
In 2018, Shepphird published Bottom Feeders, set on a low-budget movie set ranch. Eddie Lyons has fourteen days to make a Little House on the Prairie knock-off movie that will hopefully jump start the career of aging television actress Tami Romans. He is depressed, drinks too much, and dreams of being a big-time Hollywood director. Distracting and bedeviling Eddie is Tami’s entourage that is eating up the budget, character actor Tom Birch who would rather do Shakespeare, bottom feeding animal wranglers Jimmy and Lucky, and Eddie’s one-time fling Sheila, the assistant cinematographer. Oh yeah, and there is a murdering psycho shooting arrows into the set picking off crew members. Noting that Shepphird himself is a low-budget film director, Thomas Gaughan commented in Booklist that the “novel works best when illuminating the myriad challenges of making a movie.”
“Instead of attempting to link the drastically different halves of this tale, Shepphird seems to revel in the contrast between them. Like-minded readers will get two stories for the price of one,” according to a Kirkus Reviews critic. A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted: “Shepphird maintains suspense right up to the disappointing solution to the murder mystery.” Online at Criminal Element, writer Scott Adlerberg declared: “He keeps the tension high and the narrative moving, cutting back and forth among the characters engaged in a life or death pursuit. … I enjoyed Bottom Feeders and zipped through it fast. It’s an entertaining mystery, but it also provides a sharp look at what it’s like to toil for a living in the low-budget movie trenches.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, February 15, 2018, Thomas Gaughan, review of Bottom Feeders, p. 30.
Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 2018, review of Bottom Feeders.
Publishers Weekly, February 26, 2018, review of Bottom Feeders, p. 66.
ONLINE
Criminal Element, https://www.criminalelement.com/ (April 24, 2018), Scott Adlerberg, review of Bottom Feeders.
Do Some Damage, http://www.dosomedamage.com/ (August 16, 2016), Scott Adlerberg, author interview.
Series
Shill
1. The Shill (2015)
2. Kill the Shill (2015)
3. Beware the Shill (2016)
The Shill Trilogy (omnibus) (2017)
Novels
Bottom Feeders (2018)
Interview / mysterypeople events / q&a
Q&A with John Shepphird
May 2, 2018 mysterypeoplescottLeave a comment
John Shepphird is not only an award winning crime author, he also has spent years as a director of movies in the low budget arena for cable networks like SyFy and ABC Family. He puts that to use in his latest novel, Bottom Feeders. A put upon director struggling to shoot a period drama on a shoe string budget not only has to put up with a diva of a leading lady and tight schedule, but soon someone is knocking off members of the cast and crew with a bow and arrow. It’s a classic whodunnit with a fun insider’s look at the temporary community a film crew forms. John will be here on May 5th at 2PM with fellow crime writer Ricky Bush. We found some time to talk with him earlier about crime fiction and film making.
MysteryPeople Scott: As somebody who worked on film sets in the past, you captured the weird bubble of a society it creates. What did you want the reader to know about film work?
John Shepphird: You rarely see the actual world of low-budget film-making represented and I thought I’d write what I know. Having directed nine TV/straight-to-video movies and hours of television, I’m part of the community of artists that create entertainment found on the fringe of your cable guide–SyFy Channel, Lifetime, USA Network and ABC Family. Contrary to what people are led to believe, there is very little glamour in movie making. You have to get up very early. The hours are brutal and schedules change day-to-day. This is especially true in low budget. There have been plenty of books, movies and TV shows depicting the world of stars, agents, limos and personal assistants. That’s all so cliché. I wrote about the people who aspire to bat in Hollywood’s major leagues.
MPS: While edgier, the mystery is in an Agatha Christie amateur-sleuth. Did a tale with a non-professional investigator in the lead present any sort of challenge?
JS: I love a whodunit. It’s the perfect balance of structure and character. That was my jumping off point. The cast and crew on a set becomes a temporary family with many similar dynamics found in an actual family, including all the dysfunction. I like to put my characters in a pressure cooker, then take a deep-dive into their best and worst behavior. Sondra, the San Bernardino County Deputy Sheriff, is the one outsider, a professional investigating the brutal murders — but she is not the primary focus to drive the mystery. She has challenges and flaws of her own and it’s her perspective that serves to escalate enlighten the story.
MPS: While the book has a unique voice and take its roots are hard planted in the traditional whodunit. Did you draw from any influences?
JS: I’d met author Michael Nethercott at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention in Albany just as his first novel The Seance Society came out. It paid homage to Agatha Christie, but also Arthur Conan Doyle and Rex Stout. I don’t necessarily read cozies. I write dark suspense and noir, but I liked the book so much I bought copies and gifted it to friends and family. I’d been thinking about starting a whodunit but it was this book that inspired me to take a crack. Bottom Feeders started out as an exercise, then the characters took on a life of their own.
MPS: Which character is the closest to you or someone you worked with?
JS:. Every character is derived from people I’ve worked with, and not necessarily on the films I wrote and directed but also the projects I was hired on as a crew member. Director Eddie’s perspective is probably the closest to mine as he tries to navigate the treacherous waters, and not go down with the ship. There’s a lot of things to worry about, believe me. Many who work in film and TV are very passionate about what they do. I have great respect for them. We’re all a little crazy, sure, and most of us will admit it. I dedicated this book to them.
I dedicate this novel to the legions of hard-working craftspeople and performers who have carried sandbags, set lights, cobbled together wardrobe, swung microphones, memorized dialogue, painted sets, dusted faces, pulled focus, teased hair, coordinated chaos, hit their marks, and built it all up only to tear it down again—making something out of nothing. To the dreamers and the schemers in the low-budget trenches, this is for you.
MPS: Did writing about a subject you knew so well actually present any challenges?
JS: If anything I wanted to include more of the details baked into low-budget filmmaking but they don’t necessarily advance the story. Once the action kicked in I couldn’t slow the pace to explore nuance. The technology has changed, but the fundamentals of motion picture production has remained the same–cut to the chase.
MPS: How many times have you wanted to commit murder on set?
JS:. I’ve never had urge to kill cast or crew because they’re like family. There are a few executives and producers I’d considered taking a swing at back in the day. Ultimately nature took its course. In the span of my career three executive producers have been incarcerated for securities fraud including Jordan Belfort, the actual “Wolf of Wall Street” depicted by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film. Another producer was jailed in a surrogacy/medical-tourism scheme. The world of independent film is ripe with personalities. There are hidden agendas. Get movie professionals together and horror stories will be swapped. We’re all just crazy enough to jump back into the flame.
John Shepphird
John Shepphird is a Shamus Award-winning author and writer/director of TV movies. His three “Shill” novellas were inspired by noir master James M. Cain; it is a terse, tense, and twist-filled trilogy with a cast of characters immersed in the art of deception, depravity, and murder. In between writing crime fiction, John serves as the Creative Director of On-Air Promotions for TVG, America’s horse racing network.
Find John Shepphird online …
Website: http://www.johnshepphird.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/john.shepphird.1
Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8157421.John_Shepphird
No bio
John Shepphird straight from The Hills of Hollywood.
It’s November. NOVEMBER?? The month where half the world goes crazy. No, I’m not talking politics. I’m talking about NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and NoShave November. I’m talking about way too many twenty-somethings out on the roads during fall college breaks. I’m talking folks falling into turkey-induced food comas, and of course, the appearance of the dreaded Black Friday shoppers. Yes, this is a month to seek escape. Snuggle up in your coziest throw, pour a glass of wine and reach for a book.
The year might have gotten away from you, left you feeling a bit underwhelmed, but it’s okay. We’re going to get through this together. I fell behind on a helluva lot of crap this year. My to-do list looks like Santa’s DC-based naughty list. One thing I didn’t fall behind in was meeting cool authors and adding them to the friend circle.
Like this dude. He’s great. In New Orleans he showed me there are two Johns. John Pre-cocktails and John Apres-cocktails. I like them both.!Granted the Apres- cocktail John made me laugh a wee bit more, and that is never a bad thing. So, here he is, this week’s author, Joh Shepphird. Let’s see if he follows the rules.
John Shepphird is a Shamus Award-winning author and writer/director of TV movies. His novellas THE SHILL, KILL THE SHILL, and BEWARE THE SHILL complete a trilogy published by Down & Out Books. Find all the books here.
Are you ready?
Okay. Here we go.
Take the Author Challenge: Answer 10 Questions in 10 Words
You’ve been contracted to write a book with the proviso that an event from your own life is the opening paragraph. Set the scene.
B-movie producer’s office rooftop. Sun rising over Hollywood Hills.
What are you reading this week?
A Cold and Broken Hallelujah by Tyler Dilts.
It’s fight or flight time and you’re at your favorite writing spot. What will you do?
Fling my Monticello souvenir coffee coaster at the bad guy.
Your book needs a soundtrack. What’s the vibe? List a song or two. Go!
Peggy Lee’s Fever. Banana Split for my Baby by Luis Prima.
An author in your genre is too sick to write anymore. Their publisher calls upon you to fill in. Who’s the author and what’s the title of the book you’ll write?
Wallace Stroby’s incredibly awesome Crissa Stone series. Rimfire. (But impossible because Wallace will outlive me for sure)
A famous NYC deli is naming a sandwich after you, what is it called and what’s in it?
Embrace the Cheese. Grilled cheese sandwich with onions & hot peppers on Shepherd’s bread.
You get to own an exotic pet. What is it and where do you keep it?
An actual buffalo on the ranch I’ll retire on someday.
I’m a Genie and I’m granting you three wishes. None of them can be about writing. What do you ask for?
A European style vacation schedule. More time in the day. No LA traffic.
It’s time for Breakfast with Dead Authors. Who’s coming? ( Poets, screen and songwriters included)
Donald Westlake, Jim Thompson, Waldo Salt, James M. Cain, Daphne du Maurier.
Go to your current WIP. Turn to page 10. Write the ten words that appear on line 10.
I put a GPS tracking device under the Prius.
***
Still laughing at your sandwich. EMBRACE THE CHEESE! AKA “movies on that channel.” 🙂
Thanks for playing. You were fun! Are you drinking?
Follow John on FACEBOOK and be sure to pick up one of his books in the SHILL series for holiday gift giving.
Here’s the first one.
THE SHILL (first in trilogy) is available for FREE on AMAZON
Tuesday, August 16, 2016
Interview with John Shepphird
Deception is the name of the game in John Shepphird's California-centered Shill Trilogy, a series made up of The Shill, Kill the Shill, and Beware the Shill. Shepphird's writes terse, no-nonsense prose, and knows how to spin a fast, entertaining tale.
I talked to him a little bit about the three books, so, why delay, let's get to it:
Scott Adlerberg: BEWARE THE SHILL, the concluding volume in your trilogy of novellas, just came out. Each book revolves around a Los Angeles based actress - Jane Innes - who has had her share of career struggles in Hollywood. Still, she is a skillful actress, so she's an intriguing person to follow through the trilogy's various capers and games of deception. I found her a nice change from the typical central character in this kind of crime fiction. What was the inspiration behind her character?
John Shepphird: I live in Los Angeles and have directed a number of TV movies and straight-to-video titles. Jane is inspired by actresses I’ve known, some of which I've dated, driven by blind ambition. I'm drawn to crime fiction that embraces flawed but sympathetic protagonists. Jane's lonely and battling depression. She's obsessed with beauty magazines and aspires to the unattainable. She can't admit to herself that finding success in show business is not going to happen. Her life changes when she falls for Cooper, a con man. Her blind ambition makes her justify that impersonating a carefree heiress in his scheme is simply playing a “role” as opposed to actually being an accomplice. That fateful decision is what puts everything in motion.
And Jane comes from the other side of the tracks so pulling off a convincing heiress is a challenge. Cooper must school her. This echoes themes from Pygmalion or My Fair Lady. It’s all about deception. Through the series, as things escalate, Jane impersonates other characters and relies on her skills as a magician. Ultimately Jane must pull off the performance of her life to survive.
Deception is a subject and activity that clearly fascinates you. I know you've written a couple of short stories about a Private Eye named Jack O'Shea who is a "Deception Specialist." Where did your interest in the types of deception and the personalities of people involved in deception come from? And is there any crime fiction that you've drawn upon as an inspiration that really digs into this territory?
As a kid I studied magic and thought I'd pursue it as a career. Maybe I should have. Doesn't David Copperfield own an island or something? Instead I chose film and television, but there's magic in that. The art of deception has always fascinated me and I love a good twist. The mustard seed was planted when I was gifted a magic set at nine years old. Then over the years I read and collected various books about cons and con men. There is less fiction that has inspired me but movies certainly have, including Vertigo, Blood Simple, The Usual Suspects, and of course The Sting -- all classics, all crime stories. Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine publishes my Jack O'Shea series of short stories. He's a reformed con man trying to redeem himself. Dented armor, and another flawed protagonist.
For the trilogy as a whole, as an overall piece of crime fiction, did you have any particular literary inspirations? Who are the crime writers, or non-crime writers for that matter, you feel have made the biggest impact on you?
I’m big a fan of vintage noir fiction and nobody has inspired me more than James M. Cain. Partly for his brilliance in economy but mostly I’m drawn to Cain's fractured love stories. Those relationships resonate with me; Cora and Frank in The Postman Always Rings Twice, Phyllis and Walter in Double Indemnity, or Joan and Earl in Hard Case Crime’s recently discovered and never before published until now The Cocktail Waitress.
James M. Cain gives credit to screenwriter Vincent Lawrence who introduced him to the notion of a “love rack” -- the moment love is “recognized” by a character as a “moment of poetry”. And being true noir, Cain assures that one of the lovers has to be the losing lover. With the Shill series I attempted to weave a suspenseful page-turner with a dysfunctional love story at the core. Jim Thompson and Charles Bukowski also inspire with their odd love stories. Contemporary writers I read that inspire me are Steve Hamilton, Wallace Stroby, Jason Starr and Megan Abbott.
Though the trilogy is contemporary, you have an interesting historical reference that figures in the plot. Want to talk about what this reference is and how you came to include it?
One of the movies I co-wrote and directed (Chupacabra Terror for SyFy Channel) was shot in the Turks & Caicos.Those small Caribbean islands served as a hideout for pirates and that fact really sparked my imagination. I researched the era and was fascinated by the notorious (and treacherous) female pirate Anne Bonny. Although there's nothing supernatural in these books, Anne haunts the series.
Living in California, the history of the Gold Rush has always fascinated me. There was so much money made in so little time! While doing research for Beware the Shill I was inspired by the sea tragedy of the steamship Yankee Blade. Greed, cowardice, missing gold -- the stuff is too rich not to write about, and to mirror.
I feel we're all connected to the past. History often repeats itself and that's why I try to weave a little bit of the historical into my stuff. Plus it's just plain fun.
You mentioned that you directed a number of TV movies and straight to video titles? Anything about storytelling through visual means that has helped in how you tell stories on the page?
It's all about economy, both on the screen and on the page. When I first started directing I spent too much time and effort on the technical--dolly moves, crane shots. But experience taught me that a director's job is to simply put the camera exactly where it needs to be. Work with the actors to make it true, then capture those moments, period. I started my career enamored by wide shots and camera gymnastics. Now I realize it's all about the close up. Where's the emotion? Where does the audience need to be?
I know you have a full time job and family. Everyone has their own way of getting in the writing time they need. How do you work writing in to your routine? Do you write every day? And are you kind of person who zips through a first draft fast just to get something down, before going back and revising, or do you outline a lot beforehand?
I'm a morning person so I'm up early before the crack of dawn and try to get at least an hour in a day. My routine is I'll write a chapter then go back and revise it once, and then proceed. Then when it's complete I'll go back to the beginning and begin revising it all over again until I feel it's ready. I don't outline but I have written the last chapter, or my final culmination, first. That gives me something to to write toward. It's often revised once I get there, but it provides me a milestone to aim for.
The Shill was originally published as an ebook by a publisher you had problems with. After you did some searching, Eric Campbell at Down and Out took it on, and the two books that followed. How's it been working with him and how would you describe the small press experience overall?
The experience has been very positive. I’m grateful to be with Down & Out Books and honored to be included among their stable of authors. They’re progressive and have established a unique brand. They’ve been in business for over five years and in 2015 Down & Out's Moonlight Weeps by Vincent Zandri won both the Shamus Award and the ITW Thriller Award.
Writing wise, what do you have on the horizon?
I'm finishing a novel titled Bottom Feeders -- Hollywood slang for filmmakers working primarily on low budget schlock. It's a murder/mystery/ thriller that takes place on the set of a low budget TV movie, something I know a lot about.
Bottom Feeders
Thomas Gaughan
Booklist. 114.12 (Feb. 15, 2018): p30.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Bottom Feeders.
By John Shepphird.
Apr. 2018. 238p. Blackstone, paper, $16.99 (9781538469200); e-book, $6.99 (9781504763394).
Director Eddie Lyons has resigned himself to never being recognized as an auteur, but he's proud of the low-budget films and TV shows he has brought in "on time and under budget." He drives an aged Subaru, drinks Popov vodka, and is lonely, depressed, and lovelorn. But the chance to direct a made-for-TV western starring an aging, self-absorbed former TV star, who hopes the film will jump-start her career, energizes Eddie. The rock-bottom budget, 14-day shooting schedule, and willful star take a backseat when members of the crew and cast begin to die at the hands of a mysterious, homicidal archer. Eddie is bedeviled by--in addition to the star and her entourage--a male actor whose greatest success came doing Shakespeare in Cincinnati and who plans to "bleed" the production for every possible dollar, as well as by a California wildfire that threatens to envelop the film's location, if the archer doesn't kill everyone first. Shepphird is himself a low-budget film director, and his novel works best when illuminating the myriad challenges of making a movie.--Thomas Gaughan
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Gaughan, Thomas. "Bottom Feeders." Booklist, 15 Feb. 2018, p. 30. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A531171543/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=db05e20c. Accessed 27 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A531171543
Shepphird, John: BOTTOM FEEDERS
Kirkus Reviews. (Jan. 1, 2018):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Shepphird, John BOTTOM FEEDERS Blackstone (Adult Fiction) $16.99 1, 3 ISBN: 978-1-5384-6920-0
Is it harder to dodge the weapons of death aimed by an obsessive archer or to wrap up a bare-bones TV movie on time and under budget? Shepphird (Beware the Shill, 2016, etc.) presents enough evidence on both sides to let you make the call.
Tapped by executive producer Sam Carver to replace director Chris Sanderson in a Little House on the Prairie knockoff for aging TV actress Tami Romans, Eddie Lyons knows he'll say yes even before reading the script because it's better to be working than not. Or maybe it isn't, as he finds when he arrives for the two-week shoot at Crescent Movie Ranch, a spot so authentic that there's no cellphone reception. Apart from Tami, whose three personal assistants soak up disproportionate amounts of the budget and real estate, the rest of the talent, from character actor Tom Birch to closeted gay cinematographer Giovanni to animal wranglers Jimmy and Lucky, are bottom feeders better known for their cut-rate reliability and efficiency than their star power. The shoot reunites Eddie with Sheila, an assistant cinematographer he slept with once in a drunken fling and who's now clearly embarrassed that they've been thrown together again. Tami demands costly rewrites that Eddie knows will never get approved; Tom demands to wear an inappropriate cowboy hat that will make his face harder to light. Just when you've settled in for an agreeable comedy of low-budget filmmaking, Jimmy's corpse turns up in a stagecoach with an arrow protruding from his eye. Nor is this just one more problem among many in the production, for virtually every person involved in the shoot will soon become a target in a shoot of quite a different sort.
Instead of attempting to link the drastically different halves of this tale, Shepphird seems to revel in the contrast between them. Like-minded readers will get two stories for the price of one; others may be more wary.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Shepphird, John: BOTTOM FEEDERS." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Jan. 2018. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A520735701/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c24b4bd5. Accessed 27 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A520735701
Bottom Feeders
Publishers Weekly. 265.9 (Feb. 26, 2018): p66+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Bottom Feeders
John Shepphird. Blackstone, $16.99 trade paper (238p) ISBN 978-1-5384-6920-0
At the outset of screenwriter and director Shepphird's promising debut, a sales executive headed for a conference at California's Lake Arrowhead hits a deer while driving at night on a mountain road. When he gets out of his car, he's shot with an arrow and bludgeoned to death. Cut to down-on-his-luck director Eddie Lyons, who is considering an offer to direct a made-for-TV movie featuring a has-been actress portraying a pioneering schoolteacher in the Old West. Eddie swallows his pride and accepts the job, even after learning that he wasn't the producer's first choice, an ego blow partially softened by his former lover, Sheila, serving as the assistant camerawoman. The low-budget project is scheduled to film in San Bernardino County on a tight schedule, but the pressures of making the deadline are forgotten after members of the cast and crew become the targets of a murderous archer, leaving Eddie and Sheila scrambling to survive. Shepphird maintains suspense right up to the disappointing solution to the murder mystery. Still, thriller fans will be curious to see what he does next. Agent: Peter Rubie, FinePrint Literary Management. (Apr.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Bottom Feeders." Publishers Weekly, 26 Feb. 2018, p. 66+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530637420/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=cdf6dfcf. Accessed 27 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530637420
Review: Bottom Feeders by John Shepphird
By Scott Adlerberg
Bottom Feeders
John Shepphird
April 24, 2018
A page-turning whodunit set in the wilds of a remote movie ranch, Bottom Feeders by John Shepphird describes the hapless Hollywood cast and crew that eke out a living working on low-budget fare.
The biographical information on the back of John Shepphird’s Bottom Feeders states that the author is the director of nine feature films and hours of television. His credits include Teenage Bonnie and Klepto Clyde, Chupacabra Terror, and the Syfy Channel’s Jersey Shore Shark Attack. None of these sound like cinematic masterpieces, but I don’t mention them to mock them. What they tell us is that Shepphird, over many years, has come to know the world of low-budget Hollywood filmmaking well, and he uses this knowledge to full advantage in Bottom Feeders, his debut novel. It’s a murder mystery set on the location of a barebones TV movie, and it reads a little bit like a cross between an Agatha Christie-type story and something you’d see late at night, when in the mood for something fun, on cable television.
The plot construction is straightforward, effective, and the stuff of classic mystery. Gather an eclectic group of individuals, each with his or her own fears, ambitions, quirks, and psychological baggage. Place them in an isolated spot. Have unexpected events happen, upsetting everybody, throwing the various people off balance. As tensions and suspicions rise, full-blown criminal mayhem erupts, and for a while at least, everyone present will be a suspect.
Eddie Lyons is the central character. He’s a down-and-somewhat-out director who has been summoned to a meeting with the enterprising film producer Sam Carver. Sam wants Eddie to come in on short notice and direct a TV Western Sam is preparing. The director first slated for the project pulled out because of alleged “creative differences.” Made for the Majestic Channel—a woman’s channel not dissimilar to Lifetime—the movie will be a “Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman sorta deal” and will have the aging former film star Tami Romans in the lead role. Eddie and Sam have worked together before, so they are comfortable with each other. And though Eddie is a lonely guy pushing middle-age who drinks too much, he is no self-pitying depressive. He’s not exactly where he wants to be in life—no one goes into movies to wind up churning out product for the Majestic Channel—but underneath it all, he has a gritty spirit and realistic attitude:
As much as he regretted it, tight production schedules were Eddie’s specialty. He’d built a reputation of getting the job done always on time and under budget. Long ago he’d come to terms with the fact that he would never be recognized as an artist. He’d be known as a journeyman TV craftsman experienced in working with limited resources. “Laying pipe,” was often how he described what he did as a director. It beat working in an office for a living.
In alternating chapters, with clarity and speed, Shepphird introduces his other major players: a young woman who will be the cameraman’s assistant and an aging actor with a large ego who mainly teaches acting now for a living. Eddie, these two, and everyone else involved in the shoot assemble on location, and where else could this be than an old Western set, the Crescent Movie Ranch, “up in the mountains”? It’s a place, Sam tells Eddie, that Disney recently used, and the sets there look great. Of course, as a reader, when you hear that it’s so far up in the mountains, cell phone coverage is impossible, you fear the worst. For the isolated country house, Shepphird gives us the remote movie set, and the recognition of what he’s doing—the obvious playfulness he employs—made me smile.
I smiled often during this book. Shepphird has a light touch, even when someone starts shooting lethal arrows at the movie’s cast and crew. He captures the vanities, pretensions, rivalries, and insecurities of all the film’s participants. You have gossip and backbiting. You have people pretending to contribute to the teamwork required to make a film but actually harboring their own agendas. It’s amusing, and it all rings true. And you get the sense that these show business people have difficulty not seeing everything in movie-like terms, as if real life is a mere script that will conform to a plot device. Perhaps they have spent too much time in the world of make-believe. They can’t discuss who the killer might be without sounding ridiculous:
Tom had to look away. He turned to Eddie and asked, “Think it’s that old man?”
“What old man?” Sheila questioned.
“The roadside jerky guy,” Tom said, and then back to Eddie, “Tell ‘em your theory.”
“I was saying to Tom, maybe it’s that jerky guy mad at us for some reason.”
“Why would he be mad?” Sheila said.
“I don’t know.”
“Or maybe it’s cannibalism,” Tom offered.
“Cannibalism?” Sheila questioned.
“Possibly,” Eddie said. “Maybe that beef jerky is actually –”
About three-quarters of the way through, Bottom Feeders segues from a whodunnit into an action thriller, and though I preferred the whodunnit part of the book more, there’s no doubt that the author handles the thriller part with dexterity. He keeps the tension high and the narrative moving, cutting back and forth among the characters engaged in a life or death pursuit. He is especially good at keeping clear where each character in a scene is in relation to the other characters, throughout all their frantic movement.
I enjoyed Bottom Feeders and zipped through it fast. It’s an entertaining mystery, but it also provides a sharp look at what it’s like to toil for a living in the low-budget movie trenches.