First Fiction Fridays: The Money Shot

What:The Money Shot (Breakwater Books, 2016)Who: Glenn Deir is a former CBC television reporter. He used three decades worth of experience and journalistic black humour to write The Money Shot. His first book — the memoir, Sick Joke: Cancer, Japan and Back Again — was shortlisted for the Newfoundland and Labrador Book Award for non-fiction. He lives in St. John’s.Why you need to read this now:These days, with everything from fake headlines to the inglorious downfall of media celebrities, the news is in the news. And The Money Shot is an insider’s satirical send-up of how our news gets made. But as funny as this novel is, it’s also a prescient reminder that broadcast journalism is made up of people—and people are the worst.Maybe the worst of all is Sebastian Hunter. He’s gorgeous, cultured, witty, intelligent, incredibly talented, and has a list of flaws and unsavoury activities as long as your arm. He’s basically a walking, talking, broadcasting moral dilemma. Sebastian’s a magnet for big stories, and he’s set to marry the boss’s daughter. Meanwhile, he’s sleeping with a colleague (and just about any other woman who crosses his viewfinder) and manipulating social media whenever someone steps in his way. And when he doesn’t get the CBC anchor job he’s been gunning for, he sets a plan in motion to have his adversary—the new anchor, Ethan Tremblay—commit career suicide on live television. What Sebastian doesn’t know is that someone’s on his heels, tracking his movements, and setting traps, and with all the careers Sebastian has flat-lined and all the people he’s dumped or crossed, the pursuer could be just about anyone.X plus Y:Take any of the searing satires by Kingsley Amis or Mordecai Richler, ramp up the sex, lies, and videotape, add a quintessential antihero, and you get Glenn Deir’s blazing cocktail called The Money Shot.

* * *Many thanks to James at Breakwater Books for telling us more about The Money Shot. For more great debut fiction, click here.