I spent a career as a television film editor, crafting other writers’ words and directors’ visions to help tell a story. I’ve always loved mysteries and the good ones always have clues that only the savviest of sleuths can figure out. When humor is added it’s even better. That’s what I’ve tried to do with my writing.
Film editor Rick Potter is serving thirty years for a murder he didn’t commit... but all things considered, life behind bars isn’t so bad. In fact, he’s flourishing in his new environment, regaling his colorful group of misfit inmates with tales from working in Hollywood during the Golden Age of television.
While Rick falls in love with the warden’s assistant, the real killer is still out there. It will take the combined efforts of a pair of oddball detectives, a recent comatose octogenarian ex-cop, a savvy nurse, and a rehab aide to piece together the clues to unmask the true culprit and get the film editor released from prison. This is the third installment of the Rick Potter trilogy, but all can be read independently from each other.
I love a good mystery that also makes me laugh. Kinky Friedman does that on almost every page. He is most known for his singing and songwriting, (and his run for Texas Governor), but I’ve found all his books to be page-turners and laugh-out-loud funny. In Spanking Watson, Kinky calls upon his real-life friends to help him solve a mystery that he instigated. Kind of a test to evaluate his future assistant, or Watson to his Sherlock.
Just as every dog must have its day, every Sherlock should have his Watson, and so in Spanking Watson the indomitable private dick Kinky Friedman embarks on a plan to determine which of his dependable 'Village Irregulars' will make the best sidekick.In order to assess the crew - McGovern, Ratso, Stephanie Dupont, Brennen and Rambam - Kinky assigns to each one the task of figuring out who wrote a death threat to Winnie Katz, the Kinkster's upstairs neighbour and dance teacher. Each one is resourceful in trying to ferret out the culprit - but what truly confounds Kinky is that…
I find the books by Florida’s Hiaasen to be hysterical with a clown car of memorable characters. In Squeeze Me he pokes fun at a president and first lady that is not far from the truth. Someone or something has killed a prominent high-society dowager and others. It will take Angie, a pest control specialist to solve the mystery. Laughing just thinking about this book.
'One of the world's funniest novelists' SUNDAY TIMES
'Scabrous and unrelentingly hilarious . . . the Trump era is truly Carl Hiaasen's moment' WASHINGTON POST
From the highly acclaimed author of Bad Monkey and Razor Girl comes this hilarious new novel of social and political intrigue, set against the glittering backdrop of Florida's gold coast.
It's the height of the Palm Beach charity ball season: for every good cause, there's a reason for the local luminaries to eat (minimally), drink (maximally), and be seen. But when prominent high-society dowager Kiki Pew suddenly vanishes during a swanky gala, and is later…
This debut novel from former Magnum P.I. writer and producer Reuben Leder is a tale of surgery gone wrong and the length it takes to affect revenge. Based on true medical misdeeds, the author indeed gets his revenge in this fast-paced story about a former baseball player, Nick Glass, whose surgery ruins a promising career. With the help of his fiancé, Dr. Julie Toffoli, they turn the tables on the medical profession in a gory yet humorous manner.
A screaming snowman plummets from the top floor of Cleveland Mercy Hospital—a decaying relic built before the first pandemic—and disappears into the snow drifts below. By the time his thawed corpse is discovered the following spring, a body count of incompetents, frauds, and crooks who call this chamber of horrors home, has snowballed.
Could these "disappearances" have anything to do with the bogus—and disastrous—spine operation performed on local hero Nick Glass, a former ballplayer? Or the wrongful termination of Nick's fiancé, Dr. Julie Toffoli, an idealistic intern not afraid to speak truth to power? It's up to celebrity Homicide cop,…
This book is one of a series of Mathew Scudder stories by Block. I enjoy his books because his main character is as flawed as we are. Matt is a hard-drinking former cop who goes about helping friends out of their troubles. And his friends are in a lot of trouble. Action and close calls, as well as humor, abound in this well-crafted story.
A superb thriller from the writer of A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES.
Scudder is a witness to a heist in an illegal drinking den, and the owners would like him to find the culprits, while another witness wants him to investigate the murder of his wife.
While not as funny as the above books, I like this one for its story of betrayal, dignity, and revenge. Set in Mussolini’s fascist regime and the Nazi occupation, young Angelina Rosini witnesses her mother’s brutal murder and will enact revenge no matter how long it takes. She escapes to Rome with her daughter and joins the resistance where she encounters spies, and friends that are not really friends. Who can you really trust? The characters are believable and flawed like most of us. This novel is full of action, Nazi cruelty, and a relentless determination to make things right.
Nazi-occupied Rome sets the stage for Bridge of Sighs and Dreams, where the lives of two women collide in an arena of deception, greed, and sacrifice.
Following an allied attack, Angelina Rosini flees to Rome from her bombed-out village and a ruthless Nazi officer bent on revenge. In Rome, the spirited portrait artist channels her creativity into the art of survival for herself and her young daughter. Unwilling to merely endure, and armed with ingenuity, wit, and unyielding optimism, she enters the shadow world of the Resistance where she zigzags through a labyrinth of compassionate allies and cunning spies.
Meet Tony Valenti. His high-flying corporate law career just cratered. His society marriage blew up in a bitter divorce. He's returned to the Chicago suburbs to lick his wounds and regroup in the haven of the Valenti family home. But time to heal isn't in the cards.
Tony's elderly father inexplicably shoots a sheriff's deputy on their front porch. Nobody knows why, and Papa isn't talking. Then their house becomes an unlikely target for condemnation and expropriation by corrupt local officials and their cronies.
With money and hope dwindling, Tony steps up to defend his father and take to city hall, and quickly finds himself in peril when he unearths sinister connections between the cases. The audacity of the plot against them fuels a gritty determination to get to the bottom of what really happened—regardless of the risks and ultimate cost to himself. To win, Tony must earn his father's trust and outwit his wily opponents.
Meet Tony Valenti. His high-flying corporate law career just cratered. His society marriage blew up in a bitter divorce. He’s returned to the Chicago suburbs to lick his wounds and regroup in the haven of the Valenti family home. But time to heal isn’t in the cards.
Tony’s elderly father inexplicably shoots a sheriff’s deputy on their front porch. Nobody knows why, and Papa isn’t talking. Then their house becomes an unlikely target for condemnation and expropriation by corrupt local officials and their cronies.
With money and hope dwindling, Tony steps up to defend…
