The Cult of Truland: A Tale of Fame, Murder and Man's Quest for the Perfect Talk Show Guest

"A trifecta — funny as hell, cautionary and filled with jaw-dropping thunderclaps . . . If you dig Robert Crais and Elmore Leonard, you'll enjoy Brass's wild dive into the drowning pool of Big Time fame."

- Bill Minutaglio, former People Magazine bureau chief, author of "Dallas 1963" and "City on Fire”

Jake Truland is a master of the fame game, a single-minded rogue laser-focused on celebrity, attention, the buzz. No one is better at getting his name in a gossip column or generating a week-long media frenzy. To his most devoted fans – 59.8 percent women, 28-54, with 1.2 ex-husbands and a zest for designer-label tequila, studies show – Jake is a mysterious figure in Cole Haan loafers, appearing periodically to dispense wisdom and date fashion models of questionable morals.

But there has been a shift in the celebrity zeitgeist. Jake is fading into the realm of the almost famous, relegated to morning radio shows and staged nightclub appearances. Celebrity bowling shows loom on the horizon.

That all changes when a mysterious chain of events returns Jake to his beloved spotlight. The celebrity news hordes shift into full frenzy. Copters take to the sky. Jake is back. But the resulting media tornado sweeps up a trailer park of characters and sends Jake careening out of control. Pursued by TV producers, investigators and his obsessive fans, Jake confronts the dark side of his celebrity as he struggles to protect the one person he truly loves.

In the page-turning tradition of Carl Hiaasen and Christopher Buckley, The Cult of Truland is a romp through the glitzy corridors of Hollywood, celebrity journalism and Jake Truland’s fame-obsessed world.