Public Opinion by Nathan Pettijohn

Part exposé about the seedy underbelly of Hollywood public relations, part history of private investigations and hacking techniques, Nathan Pettijohn’s slick and bawdy novel Public Opinion tells the story of a morally gray protagonist who blackmails the stars.

Melvin Ritkin bills himself as an IT professional who serves the rich and famous of Los Angeles. In reality, he’s a fleecing grifter who uses countless online personas to spread fake news and influence popular perceptions about clients. After starting a tempestuous relationship with an adult film star and agreeing to manipulate the reputation of an abusive director, Melvin will have to manage multiple crises without getting in over his head.

Author Pettijohn’s propulsive and irresistible first-person narrative voice guides the reader effortlessly through tense film sets and fancy celebrity parties, featuring snappy one-liners like “Put on an act long enough, and it can become a reality.” The sections of the novel that take place within scenes are often more successful than the explanatory passages, due to the strength of Pettijohn’s cheeky dialogue and witty banter between characters, but this is an incisive and entertaining novel throughout.

Featuring everything from secret love children to salacious murders, Public Opinion is a trenchant, genre-bending examination of our media-saturated modern age, offering a fascinating and frenetic peek inside the scandalous lives of the privileged few.