The Highly Effective Detective Plays The Fool

"Deserves mention with the wackiest of today's comic crime novelists... similar to Donald E. Westlake or Carl Hiaasen." —Booklist on The Highly Effective Detective Goes to the Dogs In this third installment of Richard Yancey's hilarious Teddy Ruzak P.I. series, Teddy's latest client is a good looking dame with long blond hair and great gams. Her husband, she suspects, is stepping out on her, and she hires Teddy to nail the cheater. Then the client disappears. Is this a divorce case—or a murder?

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After his ailing mother dies, Teddy quits his job as a night watchman and becomes a detective. He hires his favorite waitress from the local diner to be his Girl Friday. His first case, finding out who ran down six baby geese, quickly evolves into an investigation of a vicious murder.

From the critically acclaimed author of Confessions of a Tax Collector and The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp comes The Highly Effective Detective--a hilarious and thrilling series debut featuring a lovable but bumbling private investigator. Meet Teddy Ruzak, the oversized, over-his-head P.I. whose first case begins with the hit-and-run killing of a gaggle of goslings. After his ailing mother dies, Teddy quits his job as a night watchman to fulfill his childhood dream of being a detective. With little planning and even less foresight, he hangs up his shingle and hires his favorite waitress from the local diner to be his Girl Friday. And his first case? Bringing to justice the thoughtless driver who mows down six baby geese. Not the most exciting assignment--until Teddy's "wild-goose chase" quickly evolves into an investigation of a vicious murder.

Celebrated author Laurie R. King dazzles mystery lovers once again in To Play the Fool, her second Kate Martinelli mystery. The story unfolds as a band of homeless people cremate a beloved dog in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. When it comes to incidents like this, the authorities are willing to overlook a few broken regulations. But three weeks later, after the dog's owner gets the same fiery send-off, the SFPD knows it has a serious problem on its hands. Other than the fact that they're dealing with a particularly grisly homicide, Inspector Kate Martinelli and her partner, Al Hawkin, have little else to go on. They have a homeless victim without a positive ID, a group of witnesses who have little love for the cops, and a possible suspect, known only as Brother Erasmus. Kate learns that Erasmus is well-acquainted with the park's homeless and with the rarefied atmosphere of Berkeley's Graduate Theological Union, yet he remains an enigma to all. It's apparent that he is by no means crazy--but he is a fool. Kate begins the frustrating task of interrogating a man who communicates only through quotations. Trying to learn something of his history leads her along a twisting road to a disbanded cult, long-buried secrets, the thirst for spirituality, and the hunger for bloody vengeance.

In this fourth installment of Rick Yancey’s touching and funny Highly Effective Detective Series, lovable but bumbling PI Teddy Ruzak is out of his league again, and this time, things are getting serious. Farrell, one of Teddy’s old friends, is in desperate need of Teddy’s help. His daughter Isabella’s ex-boyfriend, locked up for assault, is days away from being released from jail, and Farrell knows his first stop out of the slammer will be at his daughter’s door. Farrell enlists Teddy to keep any eye on Isabella. But when the bad seed ex-boyfriend turns out to have associates even more alarming than he is,Teddy finds himself dealing with truly dangerous criminals. To make matters worse, Felicia, his secretary, is being threatened by mysterious men whom she can’t seem to shake. Can Teddy keep Felicia getting hurt while still protecting Isabella? And do his strong feelings towards Felicia run deeper than just a friend looking out for a friend? This funny and engaging mystery starring Teddy Ruzak will delight and entertain his many devoted fans.

The first study to systematically trace the impact of theatre on the emerging public of the early modern period.

Giving deserved attention to nearly 150 neglected films, this book covers early sound era features, serials and documentaries with genre elements of horror, science fiction and fantasy, from major and minor studios and independents. Full credits, synopses, critical analyses and contemporary reviews are provided for The Blue Light, The Cat Creeps, College Scandal, Cosmic Voyage, The Dragon Murder Case, The Haunted Barn, Lost Gods, Murder in the Red Barn, The New Gulliver, Return of the Terror, Seven Footprints to Satan, S.O.S. Iceberg, While the Patient Slept, The White Hell of Pitz Palu and many others.