A trio of reckless and impulsive young people devise risky car accidents to collect insurance blood money, get caught up in the seamy underworld of crime and auto insurance fraud and suffer the nightmarish descent as events spiral out of control…
Author: Lindy S. Hudis
Publisher: Project X Publishing
Pages: 269
Genre: Crime Thriller
Format: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited
How far would you go to get rich?
What if you were desperate? What if you were completely out of options? Would you cut in front of a sparkling, new Mercedes on the busy L.A. freeway and slam on the brakes? What if it were that easy?
Enter the world of Crashers…
The con is simple: Get in a car accident. Collect the insurance blood money. What could go wrong? That’s what Shari believed when she found herself in dire need of cash. When she meets the sexy and mysterious Bryce, the teaches her all about how to be a “capper.”
Soon, Shari realizes that by staging more of these accidents, she’ll have more money than she knows what to do with.
But as she becomes more and more obsessed with her strange new world, she discovers there’s no such thing as easy money. And what started out as a simple payout soon turns into a deadly game.
Read sample here.
Crashers is available at Amazon and is currently in film development with Face 2 Face productions.
Book Excerpt
For KXXX TV and KXXX AM Radio News, this is Katie Carlson with your mid-morning eye-in-the-sky traffic report, and it’s an easy one: It’s messed up EVERYWHERE! So far, the 405 South is backed up all the way to the 101. So, if you are going into Hollywood this morning, you are going to be late for that audition. Also, there is an injury crash on the Eastbound 10. So, if you are heading into downtown LA, you might want to bring a magazine or get some knitting done. If you are going to LAX, forget it, call mom back east and tell her you will be driving out instead. Just Kidding! Any way, this is Katie Carlson with the Los Angeles mid-morning traffic report. Enjoy your commute everybody, NOT!
* * *
As the blare of the clock radio on the night table jolted her awake, Shari Barnes rubbed her eyes, blew her long brown hair out of her face, and snuggled into Nathan Townsend’s chest. She curled her body around his middle and took a deep whiff of his salty, masculine neck.
But she couldn’t ignore the voice on the radio.
“Monday morning traffic,” she sighed.
Nathan matched the sigh and put his arms around her. “At least you don’t have to drive over the hill.”
“Yeah, I would just die if I had to drive into Beverly Hills every day to work in a beautiful office.” Shari giggled and disappeared under their thick blue comforter for a few more moments of sleepy-headed bliss. She felt Nathan stretch up, and a moment later the radio shut off. Then he slid down next to her in the single bed they shared in their Studio City apartment, a few blocks north of Ventura Boulevard. The constant drone and rumble of another L.A. morning came clearly through the open window: cars honking, rock music blaring, the frantic scurrying sounds of the film shoot a few blocks away. Shari ran her bare feet up the inside of Nathan’s thigh.
He jumped. “Shit, your feet are cold.” He pushed her legs off of him.
“What time is it?” she murmured between kisses.
“Um, seven.” He nuzzled her neck and she felt him becoming erect against her.
“No time for that!” She threw off the covers. “Gotta be at work on time for once; gotta get my asp out of bed.”
“There’s a snake in the bed?” Nathan grabbed her with both hands and gave her belly gentle nips.
“Yeah, of the one-eyed variety.” Shari leaped to the floor and padded naked into the bathroom. She turned the hot water in the shower to high and stepped in, filling the small bathroom with steam.
She had just poured a green drop of shampoo into her palm and was running her hands together when the flimsy yellow and white shower curtain flew back and Nathan grinned in at her. She smiled back, surprised by neither his arrival nor the partial hard-on that preceded him.
“Mind if we join you?” he asked.
“There’s enough shampoo for everybody,” Shari said as she rubbed her hands across her scalp.
He stepped into the stall, pulled the curtain closed and began to lather her hair for her. She put her hands on his back, feeling the taut muscles and the water streaming there, but did not reach down between them. It took him about five seconds to realize it and hold her away.
“You okay?”
“Fine….”
“Don’t lie; I can always tell when you have something on your mind.”
“You know me better than I know me,” she said.
“You know it.” He pushed her wet hair over her shoulders. “Come on, give.”
“I was thinking maybe I should get a second job.”
“You’re worrying about money again?”
“Well, I have to shoot my student thesis film this year or I won’t graduate. But where am I going to get the money I need?”
“How much do you need?”
“At least five figures.”
– Excerpted from Crashers by Lindy S. Hudis, Project X Publishing, 2024. Reprinted with permission.
My Review:
CRASHERS is filled with unexpected twists and turns that left me astonished and speechless on numerous occasions, questioning what was unfolding. The tension was palpable, keeping me glued to each sentence as I hurried to uncover the mystery.
The narrative features a rich array of characters, each with their own dilemmas. First, we have Nathan, who has dedicated over a year of hard work to secure a contract that would guarantee him a significant promotion. Just when he believed he was on the verge of landing the deal and achieving his career milestone, it was taken away in an instant. One moment he was confident about the new position, and the next, it vanished along with his credentials.
Then there's Nathan's girlfriend, Shari, who juggles her studies and job. Shari's employer sells the café where she works, and on her second day with the new management, she is let go. On her way home, Shari gets into an accident, and the woman she collides with decides to sue her. One day, Shari and Nathan seem to have it all, living life at its peak, and the next day, their lives are thrown into chaos.
Some plot twists were easy for me to figure out quickly, while others completely caught me off guard. CRASHERS stands out as one of the best stories I've encountered in quite some time. If CRASHERS is any indication of her writing, I am eager to explore more works by Lindy S. Hudis. I intend to delve into her other stories in the near future.
I found CRASHERS incredibly enjoyable, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to all fans of crime thrillers! Be sure to grab a copy of CRASHERS today!
Lindy S. Hudis is an award winning filmmaker, author and actress. Lindy is a graduate of New York University, where she studied drama at Tisch School of the Arts. She also performed in a number of Off-Off Broadway theater productions while living in New York City.
She is the author of several titles, including her romance suspense novel, Weekends, her “Hollywood” story City of Toys, and her crime novel, Crashers. Her latest release, “Hollywood Underworld – A Hollywood Series” is the first installment of a crime, mystery series.
In addition, she has written several erotic short stories, including “The S&M Club”, “The Backstage Pass”, “Guitar God”, “The Guitarist”, and “The Mile High Club”.
Her short film “The Lesson”, which she wrote, produced and directed, has won numerous awards, including ‘Best Short Film’ at the Paris International Film Festival, The Beverly Hills Arthouse Film Festival and the San Francisco International Film Festival.
She is also an actress, having appeared in the indie film Expressionism, the television daytime drama “Sunset Beach”, also “Married with Children” , “Beverly Hills 90210” and the feature film “Indecent Proposal” . She and her husband, Hollywood stuntman Stephen Hudis, have formed their own production company called Impact Motion Pictures, and have several projects and screenplays in development. She lives in California with her husband and two children.
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