Product Description

The second of the mysteries featuring the foul-mouthed Kinky Friedman, ace private eye. It is Thanksgiving at the legendary Lone Star Cafe, a raucus little corner of Texas right in the middle of Manhattan. Larry Barkins is found dead in his dressing room, his head bashed in with his own guitar.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4098012 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Semiretired country music star, amateur sleuth Kinky Friedman is the star of his own show in this follow-up to Greenwich Killing Time. The Lone Star Cafe, on the edge of Greenwich Village, is East Coast mecca for country-and-western musicians and fans. Although business improves after three well-known stars are killed, management experiences some difficulty booking new acts. Asked by both the owner and club manager to step in, Kinky focuses on a letter containing Hank Williams lyrics, which each victim received before his final appearance. Hard-drinking, cigar-smoking Kinky comes up with a list of suspects, including a cocaine-dealing lawyer, the author of a just-published Williams' biography and a luscious blond photographer from England. But to get his man in the end, Kinky must carefully examine Hank Williams's last sad tour and then get back on stage himself. Though a little thin on plot, with a photographic red herring that won't fool those who know what numbers look like printed backwards, the second Kinky Friedman mystery offers insider dope on country music and the Lone Star and is filled with rough-edged, somehow agreeable Village atmosphere.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From The Washington Post
"To borrow a Kinkyism, this book is Killer Bee."

Review
Down at the Lone Star Cafe in Greenwich Village, the performers are being bumped off by a killer who leaves the lyrics to Hank Williams songs as clues. Definitely a case for the Kinkster. Trouble is he's preoccupied by the two women in his life who come and go, as it were, before you can whistle the first bars of 'Your Cheatin' Heart'. (Kirkus UK)

Greenwich Killing Time introduced hip, semi-amusing, semi-obnoxious narrator Kinky - part-time shamus and part-time Manhattan-country singer (beloved composer of "Ride 'Em Jewboy" and other favorites). This time, with fewer laughs and a much more amateurish plot, Kinky tries to figure out who keeps killing performers at N.Y.'s Lone Star Cafe. The first to die is glamour-boy Larry Barkin, bashed with his own guitar and then strangled with his own bandanna - soon after receiving a copy of an old Hank Williams song in the mail. Then Bubba Borgelt is electrocuted on stage. So it goes - with each murder accompanied by clues pointing to a Williams-obsessed psycho. (Among the suspects - inanely - is real-life Williams biographer Chet Flippo.) And the psycho's real identity - he's someone close by, of course - won't be revealed till Kinky himself performs at the Lone Star, with near-fatal results. Cartoon nonsense, paper-thin, filled out with Kinky's in-jokes, name-dropping, and sophomoric dirty puns: a disappointing follow-up to Friedman's mildly promising debut. (Kirkus Reviews)

Customer Reviews

Kinky vs. Hank Williams
Kinky Friedman's 2nd detective novel, Case of Lone Star, is better than his first simply because it takes place in the music world, Kinky's other love. Our country singing, cat-owning, cigar smoking part-time detective (with a new espresso machine) once again falls into a string of murders. This time, however, the killer is using the music of Hank Williams to drop his clues.

I'll admit that Kinky's mysteries are a little too pat sometimes. The killers always leave "real" clues (not the kind you have to find, the kind you get in the mail or on the doorstep). But, the detective work is sound and that's still not the best thing about this book...the greatest gift we get here is the feel of the music business and the club life (and the people who inhabit that world). I always think of Lawrence Block's Matt Scudder with a guitar when I read the tales of detective Kinky, and that's a compliment indeed.

It's an easy read, it's a true page-turner, and it's funny as hell. What more you want?

Great Book!
As far as kinky freidman goes, this is not a very good effort. That does not mean it is not a good novel, however. It is tremendously funny, and just a tad sexy. If you are first getting started on kinky, then maybe you should start with another one. This book is only for serious freidman fans only.

Good Quips but Lacking in Substance
This mystery has lots of good one-liners and clever, hip quips but is a real minus on substance. It's fun to read but not nearly as good as Kinky Friedman's other books.