The Rise

King Ross, Low Shari

Description

When we bury our secrets, they always come back to haunt us...

Their rise was meteoric.
Only a few years before, they had been three friends from Glasgow, just trying to survive tough lives of danger and dysfunction.
But on one Hollywood evening in 1993, they were on the world’s biggest stage, accepting their Oscar in front of the watching world.
That night was the beginning of their careers. But it was also the end of their friendship.

Over the next twenty years, Mirren McLean would become one of the most powerful writers in the movie industry.
Zander Leith would break box-office records as cinema’s most in-demand action hero.
And Davie Johnson would rake in millions as producer of some of the biggest shows on TV.

For two decades they didn’t speak, driven apart by a horrific secret.
Until now…
Their past is coming back to bite them, and they have to decide whether to run, hide, or fight.
Because when you rise to the top, there’s always someone who wants to see you fall.

An exciting new glam thriller for the fans of Taylor Jenkins Reid, Liane Moriarty and Jo Spain

Previously published in the UK as TAKING HOLLYWOOD by Shari King.

‘Brilliant, a white-knuckle ride of a novel. Gripping and wildly glamorous’ Tilly Bagshawe
‘It's a real slice of Hollywood and a brilliant read’ Gerard Butler
‘A glam, edgy thriller, just the way I like them’ Martina Cole
‘Sex, scandal and secrets galore’ Jackie Collins
'A high-stakes thriller with a dark, moving story at its core. Page-turning entertainment at its very best' - TJ Emerson
‘It's a thriller that’s gritty, sexy and a sensational page turner. You won't be able to put it down. I loved it!’ Lorraine Kelly
'I loved this Hollywood tale with deep Scottish roots. It’s dark, sinful, glittering and thrilling. An absolute adventure from the very first page' Carmen Reid
'The mean streets of Glasgow meet the glitz of Hollywood. A riveting read!' - Evie Hunter

Sujets

• Policier & Thriller
• Thriller
• Vie de famille
• Relations familiales
• Mashups
• Psychological
• Genres
• Conflict Resolution
• Thrillers
• Women
• Coming of Age
• Suspenso
• Película fotográfica
• Escocia
• Friendship
• Psychological thriller
• Screenwriting
• General officer
• Woman
• Psychology
• The Women
• General
• California
• Scotland
• Suspense
• Fiction
• Glasgow
• Film
• Hollywood
• Los Angeles

Informations

• Publié par: Boldwood Books
• Date de parution: 13 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781804267684
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE RISE


SHARI LOW & ROSS KING
CONTENTS



About the authors…

Foreword


Prologue

1. ‘Young Americans’ – David Bowie

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

5. ‘Don’t You (Forget About Me)’– Simple Minds

6. ‘Walk This Way’ – Aerosmith

7. ‘Fake’ – Alexander O’Neal

8. ‘Landslide’ – Stevie Nicks

9. ‘Relax’ – Frankie Goes to Hollywood

10. ‘Like A Prayer’ – Madonna

11. ‘Superstition’ – Stevie Wonder

12. ‘She’s Gone’ – Hall & Oates

13. ‘Riders On the Storm’ – The Doors

14. ‘Alive and Kicking’ – Simple Minds

15. ‘Labour of Love’ – Hue & Cry

16. ‘Counting Stars’ – OneRepublic

17. ‘Bang Bang’ – will.i.am

18. ‘Nothing’ – The Script

19. ‘Dream to Sleep’ – H2O

20. ‘Sweet Little Mystery’ – Wet Wet Wet

21. ‘Losing My Religion’ – R.E.M

22. ‘How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?’– Al Green

23. ‘Let Me Go’ – Gary Barlow

24. ‘Raintown’ – Deacon Blue

25. ‘Pride’ – Amy Macdonald

26. ‘Talk Dirty’ – Jason Derulo

27. ‘Say Something, I’m Giving Up On You’– A Great Big World & Christina Aguilera

28. ‘Lose Yourself’ – Eminem

29. ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’– The Communards

30. ‘In a Big Country’ – Big Country

31. ‘Fuck You’ – CeeLo Green

32. ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ – The Who

33. ‘Amazing’ – Kanye West (ft. Young Jeezy)

34. ‘Daddy’s Gone’ – Glasvegas

35. ‘Tinseltown In the Rain’ – The Blue Nile

36. ‘Stay’ – Rihanna (ft. Mikky Ekko)

37. ‘Every Breath You Take’ – The Police

38. ‘When We Are Together’ – Texas

39. ‘The Honeythief ’ – Hipsway

40. ‘A Girl Like You’ – Edwyn Collins

41. ‘Iron Sky’ – Paolo Nutini

42. ‘Stay Away’ – Nirvana

43. ‘Crazy’ – Gnarls Barkley

44. ‘No Mean City’ – Maggie Bell

45. ‘Drunk In Love’ – Beyoncé (ft. Jay Z)

46. ‘All I Wanna Do’ – Sheryl Crow

47. ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ – Joy Division

48. ‘True’ – Spandau Ballet

49. ‘Sky Blue and Black’ – Jackson Browne

50. ‘Secret Garden’ – Bruce Springsteen

51. ‘Come Fly With Me’ – Frank Sinatra

52. ‘I Knew You Were Waiting’ – Aretha Franklin and George Michael

53. Silence

54. ‘Just the Way You Are’ – Bruno Mars

55. ‘Nothing’ – The Script

56. ‘She’ – Elvis Costello

57. ‘Clown’ – Emeli Sandé

58. ‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)’ – Stevie Wonder

59. ‘Pray’ – Take That

60. ‘Hymn to Her’ – Pretenders

61. Silent Scream

62. ‘Home’ – Michael Bublé

63. Screams

64. ‘Over the Rainbow’ – Eva Cassidy

65. ‘Let Her Go’ – Passenger

66. ‘Lego House’ – Ed Sheeran

Epilogue


A note from the authors…

More from Shari Low and Ross King

About Boldwood Books
ABOUT THE AUTHORS…

When a budding radio DJ and actor, met a young nightclub manager in Glasgow in the late 1980s, little did they know that over thirty years and thousands of miles later they would still be friends.
Los Angeles-based Ross King MBE is a four-time News Emmy award-winning TV and radio host, actor, producer, writer, voice over artist and performer. King has starred in London’s West End, appeared in over ten movies and hosted TV shows in the UK, Europe, USA and Australia. He has also presented countless radio shows and pens a Sunday newspaper column. In 2018 he received an MBE from the Queen for services to Broadcasting, the Arts and Charity.
Best-selling author Shari Low released her first book in 2001. Since then, she has published over thirty novels, selling over two million books world-wide, including the recent hits One Summer Sunrise and The Story of Our Secrets . Shari splits her time between Glasgow and Los Angeles, and wherever she is, she’s probably writing the next chapter of a book.


Visit Ross’s website at www.rossking.com
Visit Shari’s website at www.sharilow.com
From Ross – For David Johnston King and Isabel King, my heroes, my pals and my ‘Pops and Wee Bella’. Forever in my heart. And for the best sister in the world, Elaine, and the family, Jim, Hollie and Euan.
From Shari – For my love, John, and our family, who are everything, always.
And from both of us, to our very first reader, the incomparable and dearly missed, Jackie Collins, with love and gratitude for the inspiration and encouragement she gave us every step of the way.
People say that movie stars are really just like us.
They are.
They get up in the morning, go to the toilet, pull on their pants one leg at a time… but after that it’s all different.
PROLOGUE
THE 65TH ACADEMY AWARDS,



Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles,
29 March 1993

Lights.
The heat of the lights is as oppressive as the thick cloak of insecurity and desperation that shrouds the audience.
Billy Crystal steps to the podium, his laconic grin a teasing, gentle rebuke to a collection of egos teetering on the edge of explosion.
His fourth time in the role, Crystal introduces the presenter of the next category with an ease born of confidence and familiarity. Romcom queen, Lana Delasso, glides onto the stage, blonde hair an homage to her namesake and idol, Lana Turner. Her nomination in the category of Best Supporting Actress will be decided later and she’s done everything possible to win. Everything. In her fifties now, the best surgeons have ensured that she doesn’t look a day over thirty-five, her white, cobweb Versace gown, defying the rule that you should never show cleavage and legs at the same time. The physical reactions in the audience are instant and visceral: tight smiles of envy on bejewelled women coincide with ferocious erections under some of the $1,000 tuxedos sitting next to them.
Her words are white noise until they reach the point: ‘…. Best Original Screenplay.’
Behind her, on a thirty-foot screen, the nominations roll.
Husbands and Wives by Woody Allen. A smattering of applause, hesitations fuelled by the desire to come down on the right side of the moral judgement on Allen’s affair with Mia Farrow’s daughter. In Hollywood, picking sides has little to do with principles and everything to do with career enhancement.
Lorenzo’s Oil by George Miller and Nick Enright. More applause. Camera zooms to a row in which the suits are overshadowed by Susan Sarandon’s uncommon beauty.
Passion Fish by John Sayles. A movie that was released in only two theatres, grossing only a few tickets over $36,000 before its nomination.
Unforgiven by David Peoples. A crowd-pleaser. Directed and produced by Clint Eastwood, the audience of stars greets it with a show of worship reserved for work that has been touched by a deity.
The Brutal Circle by Davie Johnston, Zander Leith and Mirren McLean. An outsider. A harrowing story of a life born in violence, lived in violence, cut short by violence.
The big screen spans several seats, but all eyes are on the ebullient form of the producer, Wes Lomax, legendary head of Lomax Films, the studio responsible for more million-dollar-grossing movies in the last decade than any other.
The image returns to Lana Delasso, revelling in her moment. The same fingers that caressed a very married studio mogul only an hour before, now slide delicately along the folds of the gold envelope.
‘And the winner is…’
Pause.
‘ The Brutal Circle by…’
Sycophantic cheers drown out the names; stars rise to their feet, determined to ensure that when Wes Lomax watches the playback, he will see them heralding his triumph.
In the chaos, the director in the gallery is a fraction late in switching to the three bodies that move towards the stage, all of them almost as unrecognizable as the extras hired to fill the seats vacated by stars drawn to the restrooms by the call of nature or the need for a line snorted off the top of a toilet. When the zoom lens on Camera 5 finally catches up with the winners, they are ascending the stairs to the stage.
Davie Johnston, at twenty-two the youngest winner of an award in that category in Academy history, strides forward with the surety of a man with an unblinking eye on his destination – the spotlight of an Academy award winner and membership of one of the most exalted, exclusive clubs in the world.
Behind him, Mirren McLean, in the only haute-couture dress she has ever touched, her wild mane of Titian curls tamed to match the elegance of the midnight-blue Dior gown. Unaccustomed to heels, she steps with care, her expression a mix of concentration and disbelief.
Finally, with a demeanour that suggests reluctance, Zander Leith. For every woman who tried to ignore her partner’s sexual interest in Lana Delasso, here is six feet two inches of payback. Wide shoulders, his square jaw set in a brooding grimace, he could be heading to a wake, not the spotlight of a winner.
When only a few feet separate them, Lana’s eyes meet his and she instinctively flinches as he responds to the flirtatious flutter of her lashes with almost visceral scorn, his disdain barely masked by his own thick, black lashes. Rebuffed.
While the outside remains a movie goddess, on the inside she is twelve again: the odd kid at school that even the trailer-park waifs avoid. The one that turned into the most beautiful woman in Hollywood, but still felt she had to respond to the summons to Wes Lomax’s yacht and service his lust and his ego to get his support for her own nomination.
Davie Johnston takes the Oscar and moves forward to the microphone.
‘I just want to say thank you—’
More applause. Most of the audience know of this trio, despite the fact that they are barely out of their teens. Wes Lomax has ensured that their story has saturated the Hollywood press in recent months. All three are credited as writers on the script, but Mirren steered the story behind the scenes, while the two men played leading roles in a movie that had blown up at the box office. The success was due, in part, to a publicity and distribution campaign usually reserved for A-list releases, and, in part, to the fact that it was a damn fine piece of cinema. It w