PORTRAIT OF AN ARTIST AS A YOUNG CRIMINAL: FRANK M. YOUNG'S NEVER ODD OR EVEN

Crime novels dealing with Hollywood and filmmaking could be their own subgenre. It started before before Elmore Leonard's Get Shorty and there have been many after. Call it "cinaste' noir" (no, there's got to be something better).Frank M. Young makes the latest stop at Hollywood and crime with his debut Never Odd Or even.

The story takes place in the early sixties with Charlie Jerome, a fresh graduate from UCLA film school whose short film has helped him get some interest from the studios. However, like many of the early film brat generation, he's influenced by the French New Wave and years to make something free and "real". Spurned on by the famed scene from Gun Crazy, he wants to do a noir film with actual crimes being documented.

He makes a deal for a paperback he pulled off the rack, Never Odd Or Even, mainly to use the title. Serendipity helps him meet career small time crook Sam Mellinger breaking into his car. Charlie offers to buy Sam dinner.

Sam instructs Charlie in the the ways of criminal life. Charlie then plots with his cinematographer, Artie Sellon. After a screen test proves Sam reads well on camera, Charlie takes the script of a fellow UCLA alum, Summer and Sandy, that he successfully pitches to Universal. He talks them into using a small crew to shoot in a small Oregon town away from studio eyes. With Sam, Artie, the lead actress, a ingenue from the theater Charlotte Magill, and Owen a studio execs son they make the sound guy, Charlie directs Summer and Sandy in the day and Never Odd Or Even, featuring a real bank robbery at night. Needless to say, not everything goes as planned.

Young captures the thrill and personalities of filmmaking. Charlie carries the common pretension found in a lot of young cinephiles, but his love of film and ingenuity makes up for it. His relationship Artie beautifully represents the dependable and inventive coworker and friend who has the director's back that a cinematographer can be. More planning goes into both films than the larceny, yet the book presents parallels to both. Much of the suspense will be if both movies come together. The author not only expresses the love of film.but the process of making it.

Never Odd Or even hits the marks of a tight noir tale with its twisted ambition, desperate actions, and sacrifice (including a foot). However , it's filtered through the romantic view of a young director passionate about his craft. Frank M. Young shows how creativity can be a light in a dark world.