X-Book

Someone to Watch Over Me

A Jack Shannon Mystery (Book 1)

Click Buy to Log in and see personalised pricing.

Send as a gift Get in the xigxag app

Listen to a sample

What to expect

Hollywood, 1947. Jack Shannon, a former actor whose promising career was interrupted by the war and ended by a facial scar sustained in combat, is now a studio publicist. He jokes that the only thing he knows about publicity is how to suppress it, but that, in fact, is his real job. He’s a fixer who babysits the studio’s stars and covers up their bad behavior.

Everything changes for Jack when Savannah Stevens enters his life. A sexpot star in the mold of Jean Harlow and the studio’s biggest box-office draw, she’s a deeply troubled young woman given to emotional breakdowns, unexplained absences from the set, and time-devouring delays occasioned by her paralyzing insecurities and her insistence on dozens of takes.

Jack’s job is to stay with her 24/7, deliver her to the set on time each day, and make sure she completes her current picture, a picture on which the future of the studio depends. All goes well until Savannah disappears, and Jack is assigned the task of finding her … without revealing to anyone, including the police, that she is missing.

Critics Review

“Reading Someone to Watch Over Me is like watching a classic 1940s black-and-white noir detective movie like The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon…Too bad Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum won’t be available if they make a movie out of this excellent tough-guy detective novel.”

Phillip Margolin, New York Times bestselling author

“There was Sam Spade, Lew Archer, Travis McGee. Now there is Jack Shannon.”

Jameson Parker, author of Dancing with the Dead

“An impressively original, solidly written, hard-boiled Hollywood noir-style novel…a riveting and inherently absorbing read from cover to cover.”

Midwest Book Review

“If Raymond Chandler had turned a steely eye to the notorious Hollywood casting couch, the result might well be called Someone to Watch Over Me.”

Malcolm Brooks, author of Painted Horses
Author Dan Bronson
Narrator Jack Daniel
Series A Jack Shannon Mystery
Duration 6 hours and 56 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9798200697182
Format Audiobook
Genre Crime and mystery: hard-boiled crime, noir fiction, Historical crime and mysteries, Thriller / suspense fiction
Availability AU, GB, IE, US

More from the same

About xigxag

xigxag is an independent, UK-based audiobook platform and the UK’s only B Corp certified audiobook company. We offer nearly 150,000 audiobooks, all with professional human narration. No AI-generated voices. xigxag is rated an Ethical Consumer Best Buy for audiobooks and a top-rated ethical bookshop.

There is no subscription. You buy the audiobooks you want, you own them permanently, and prices start at £8.99. The more you listen over the year, the less you pay per book, and there is always a selection in Listen for Less from £3.99. You can also send audiobooks as gifts using our audiobook gift cards or in-app gifting.

Every audiobook on xigxag has honest reviews covering both the book and the narration, and our community features make it easy to share what you are listening to, discover what others recommend, and find your next listen.

Download or stream on iOS, Android, or in your browser. Browse the full catalogue at xigxag.co.uk.