The line between passion and obsession runs through us all. Levi Combs never planned to rocket to stardom. Eva Florez knew he would the moment she saw him. Gabe Adams didn’t want anything to do with celebrities. But after Gabe’s sister sells his photos of Levi with a young starlet to a tabloid website, their lives become intertwined forever, bound by rage and retribution. Blending the nuance and … retribution.
Blending the nuance and insight of literary fiction with the big-screen magic of a Hollywood thriller, Focus Lost whisks readers into a world of temptation, indulgence, and revenge, daring them to take a bite of the forbidden fruit.
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Focus Lost
By dougcooper
Focus Lost by Doug Cooper is a suspense novel that brings together a myriad of characters and situations that escalates to tragedy. This is the first book that I have read by this author and overall I enjoyed it. The author gives me an actor, Levi Combs, who makes one bad mistake after another after another. It’s like he’s bent on destroying his career and refusing to accept responsibility for his actions that lead to this point. But trust me…nothing is what it seems in this story. Almost everyone is out for themselves in the cutthroat industry that exists in Hollywood.
Levi was once a down-home guy from a small town, but when he makes it big then his ego goes off the rails. His decision to hook up with his 17-year-old co-star is the one decision that sets in motion a chain reaction of events that one by one deems to doom him. Gabe is both innocent and complicit in this downward spiral. He witnesses Levi and his young co-star and instead of stopping taking pictures he continues to do so and more. He could have chosen to delete them when he saw things become intimate, but instead, he chose to take more and more. The variety of characters and situations that they face keep this story moving at a decent pace which keeps it engaging.
The suspense and drama elements are well done in this which helps keep me interested, but I’m disappointed in how certain plot holes are conveniently ignored. The author works very hard to make the characters and story feel as real as possible, but in some elements falls short. I feel that the author has Gabe be too soft towards his sister. Maybe he’s had no reason not to trust her before, but when she reveals who it is that he has taken pictures of he should have done his part to secure the pictures to prevent the fall out of problems she ends up creating. Also, I find it convenient that the author chooses to ignore the consequences that should have happened from the sale and posting of the pictures. The pictures depicted a minor in a sexual situation. That alone should have had some consequences raining down on Gabe (since his name was attached to the pictures) and/or his sister who sold them in the first place. The sister can’t claim “ignorance of the law” because this is a “present-day” story so stuff like this has been all over the internet, news, etc. I feel that too much of her behavior is rewarded throughout this story. Also, the Deputy DA…he over steps more than once in his pursuit of Combs, but even he doesn’t pay any consequences. I at least expected him to be put on leave for a period of time for his deceptions and at times ineptness, but it seems the author is intent on paving the way for this character to gain what it is that he is ultimately after…revenge…for the life choices his sister made on her own.
A common thread throughout this story is how each of the characters has suffered some sort of tragedy at one point in their lives. They each choose to take different paths with how this has molded them. The author gives backstory in the, generally speaking, appropriate places. The backstory helps to flesh out who the characters were before they got to where they are now.
This book has more than a few surprises written in, but in my opinion, for this book is an overall successful novel it falls short. Certain aspects of this story are ignored overall and the characters don’t fully come to life like they could have. I feel that the author makes it essentially impossible for the main character, Levi, to have any type of redemption or change has he plummets down a slippery slope of destruction. The world literally falls apart all around him and in the end the truth comes out. I am rating this book 4 out of 5 stars. All in all, Levi’s downfall is too straight-forward. You ultimately see each event coming, and the events play to the favor of the rest.
If you are looking for a crime/thriller/suspense novel this book is a good choice as it gives you something new and a bit twisted, but if you are hoping for a character who gets a chance at redemption you’ll be disappointed. If you are looking for characters to face obstacles and make you wonder…this book won’t be it either. But if you don’t mind brief sex scenes, a straight road to destruction then this is the book to pick up.