Shining City (2008)

GIVING HIM THE BUSINESS A freshly unemployed office drone suddenly finds himself running an inherited escort service in Seth Greenland's entertaining novel Shining City

The premise of Shining City could have sprung from Penthouse. Marcus Ripps, a middle-aged suburban shlub who's deep in debt now that his job has been outsourced to China, suddenly inherits his estranged brother's escort service. Despite some seemingly salacious elements, Seth Greenland's approach is less horny than Hornby. Not only does Marcus remain faithful to his wife, but he hires her to help run the new family biz. While his plot strains credulity, Greenland has a genuine knack for humorous description, even about his hero's averageness: Marcus has ''such conventionally pleasant looks that you could watch the man commit a crime and not be able to identify him.'' B+