.com About 30 pages into The Rabbit Factory you will find yourself hoping that the book's author Marshall Karp is at home typing. He has created two LAPD cops, Mike Lomax and his partner Terry Biggs, who are smart, drop-dead funny (especially Terry), and as irreverent as two guys can be. Karp has also written a ripping good story, not counting on buddy-cop banter to carry the day. Mike Lomax's wife, Joanie, died of cancer six months before the action begins, after a long time trying to have a family. Instead of leaving little replicas of herself, she leaves letters, which Mike opens on the 18th of every month, the anniversary of her death. His father, Big Jim, loved Joanie very much but wants to see Mike get on with his life. These guys love each other a lot and the dialogue that Karp gives them is both sharp and tender. Terry Biggs met his wife, Marilyn, who was the paramedic called when he was an "Officer Down." That meeting is so funny you have to read it to believe it. One thing, as they say, led to another, and despite the fact that Marilyn had seven-year-old twin daughters, and a third, age five, Terry signed on for the whole package. And that's how a guy from the Bronx winds up living in Sherman Oaks with a wife and three teenage Valley girls. The setting of much of the action is "Familyland," a Disneyland clone, conceived of by the late Dean Lamaar, who, like Disney, started out as an animator. His creations, Rambunctious Rabbit, Slaphappy Puppy, McGreedy the Moose, and others are now big family favorites and the little cartoon studio is a global conglomerate. It has been recently sold to the Japanese, after faltering receipts, and there are plans afoot to open a theme park in Las Vegas. That opening is just months away when an employee playing Rambunctious Rabbit is murdered on the premises. Not good for the corporate image. Another murder takes place, and another, and it quickly becomes obvious that someone has it in for Lamaar's enterprises. Mike and Terry are under tremendous pressure from Ike Rose, CEO of Lamaar, to keep the whole mess under wraps, and an equal amount of pressure from their Chief to "get it solved." They work smart and long and hard to uncover a conspiracy, finding a big surprise at the end of the search. Marshall Karp is a refreshing addition to the suspense, satire, mystery genre. His two Detectives are irresistible. --Valerie RyanFrom Publishers WeeklyStarred . The publisher's blurb on playwright and screenplay writer Karp's first novel, "The hilarious and suspenseful introduction of Detectives Mike Lomax and Terry Biggs," makes the two LAPD detectives sound as if they're the reincarnation of the Keystone Kops. They are amusing, but the comedy never overshadows this smart, many-layered thriller. Lomax's beloved wife has died, his doting father is trying to get him to go on dates and his wayward, gambling-addicted brother is in deep trouble. Meanwhile, Lomax is trying to solve a string of high-profile murders aimed at destroying a Disneyesque theme park, Lamaar's Familyland. First, the employee playing Rambunctious Rabbit, Familyland's signature cartoon character, is strangled in his rabbit suit, then a series of other employees and visitors to the park are killed, bringing the company to its knees. Lomax, Biggs and the FBI have their work cut out for them in a clever plot that will keep readers guessing to the very end. Enthusiastic readers will anxiously await the return of detectives Lomax and Biggs. (May) Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.From Booklist*Starred * In the early pages of Karp's irrepressible and often poignant debut novel, L.A. homicide cop Mike Lomax and his partner, Terry Biggs, are investigating the violent death of the actor portraying Rambunctious Rabbit, the beloved furry mascot at a popular Southern California theme park, Familyland ("Fella was wearing two rabbit's feet, and he still got iced," quips a sheriff at the scene of the crime). The park's parent company, Lamaar Studios, has its finger in a lot of pies--movies, music, television, video games--and the last thing the top brass needs is word of the murder to get out. Lamaar's bubbly, voluptuous PR director, Amy Cheever, is called in to run interference, and detectives Lomax and Biggs are determined to deter her, if only they can avert their eyes from her 38Ds. Soon there's another murder--a Lamaar Studios leading man--and it's clear the killer (a mobster, perhaps, or a vengeful employee?) is hell-bent on bringing the entertainment conglomerate to its knees. Seasoned screenwriter and playwright Karp launches this first in a series with a crisp cast of characters headed by a captivating detective team: Lomax is a handsome, fortysomething widower with a hyperactive conscience; Biggs is a funny, Bronx-born family man with a voice like vintage port. Like the best of Donald Westlake and Carl Hiaasen, The Rabbit Factory is deftly plotted and deliciously askew. Allison BlockCopyright American Library Association. All rights reserved what are the best products to dropship The Rabbit Factory: A Lomax Biggs Mystery
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. These two lead characters are very easy to likeBy K. DarceyThis is my first Marshall Karp book and it won't be my last. I have already started reading the next one in this Lomax and Biggs series. These two lead characters are very easy to like! The murder mystery in The Rabbit Factory is the perfect mix of suspense,drama and comedy. I read cop fiction almost exclusively and this book was a great find for me. I look forward to reading more Karp books.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. The ones I know and love are funnyBy Southwest WomanI have been around cops since the late 70's. The ones I know and love are funny. They have to be. The job is too hard if they can't laugh.This is a good police procedural with funny cops. Cops who are trying to cope with personal loss can still enjoy a laugh, just like real life. Dark humor, deep plot and real life characters; my favorite things.When someone kills a character at a cartoon theme park, it starts a plot line nobody could foresee except Karp. This book kept me reading. I figured out who was responsible early. If you are paying attention you can. I also kind of expected the surprise member of the organization to be who it was. What I didn't anticipate was all the juicy stuff, good dialog and real emotions too.This is a very involved book, and I doubt Karp will come up with a plot this deep in characterizations again. That's OK. Most first novels are rough, this one isn't. I have high hopes for this series.0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. A Tried and True successful matrixBy YetiKittyThe Rabbit Factory is based on the Random Factor by Tannenbaum LaRosa. (Same initials. cute.). Like Random Factor it is a serial homocide being gamed by a group of perps, who we are being given glimpses of from time to time so we almost know what's going on. The solvers, the perps, the motive, the methods have all been swapped out for completely new sets. It has been very well done and by using the Random Factor's framework, a lot of the writer's plotting problems have been solved. I'm extremely impressed. The book made good reading and I had almost as much fun comparing the Factory to the Factor as I'd reading the Factory. (Or Factor). Anybody could love it on its own, but if you have already read The Random Factor, it adds a whole new dimension. Or vice versa. Once you have read Rabbit Factory, read Random Factor.Now I've ordered a copy of The True Believer by Eric Hoffer. Read Rabbit Factory and you'll see why.