FORT BRAGG, Calif. — One of the kudos for Adam & Eve founder Phil Harvey's new novel, “Show Time” is that it’s a modern day “Lord of the Flies” — for adults.
And that's just the beginning.
Harvey’s new erotic thriller from Lost Coast Press centers on a reality TV show gone bad, where seven survivors (three women and four men) marooned on an island in Lake Superior are offered $400,000 to play out a survival game that could push them to murder, cannibalism and possibly even porn.
The lust for ratings in Harvey’s book is the driving factor, according to the publisher’s promotional materials, and the seasoned author delivers a nail biter that pits the contestants against each other on the island that’s wired for sound and video so everything the contestants do and say is broadcast worldwide.
Some nude sunbathing by a bisexual beauty, an ex-Navy SEAL, a gambler and a violent psychotic are all characters who play into Harvey’s plot.
Harvey is no stranger to the literary world. He has an impressive portfolio of fiction and nonfiction including prize-winning pieces in 15 magazines. He’s been published in Phantasmagoria, which nominated one of his stories for a Pushcart Prize, and his non-fiction work, “Let Every Child Be Wanted,” was heralded by former President Jimmy Carter.
The force behind Adam & Eve and president of non-profit family planning and AIDS prevention organization, DKT International, has also penned “The Government vs. Erotica,” praised by Publishers Weekly and Booklist and nominated as the year’s best book by ALA Intellectual Freedom Roundtable.
An accomplished wordsmith in additon to a giant of the adult world, Harvey’s talent is obvious as illustrated in this excerpt from his debut novel:
“He walked carefully to the tree where three wood saws hung, and selected the smallest, a band-type saw with an eighteen-inch blade stretched between the ends of a bowed metal tube. The teeth of the saw were deeply serrated, worn from cutting wood, hundreds of small logs and sticks that had kept them from freezing. He tested the teeth. For all the work they had performed, they remained remarkably sharp. This saw would do, this saw and his hunting knife.
“He checked the leg pocket of his pants for the waterproof match container. In the same pocket there were three fire-starter pellets. No shortage of those.
“As Ambrose left the clearing, Maureen and Ashai looked up. Ambrose flipped his fingers in a little wave. Ashai nodded back. Maureen looked at him for a moment and then went back to the tedious job of softening boiled lichen with her teeth. It was all they'd had to eat for five days.”
The book can be orderd on Amazon, at Cypress House and the expanded excerpt can be found here.
