A Man Named Doll
'I loved this book' LEE CHILD
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
'Shot through with darkly comic flourishes. Motel, money, murder, madness: it has all you need to keep you happy' THE TIMES, THRILLER OF THE MONTH
Meet Happy Doll
Hap to his friends. He's a LA private detective living a quiet life along with his beloved half-Chihuahua half-Terrier, George.
He's getting by just fine
When he's not walking George or sipping tequila, Hap works nights at the Thai Miracle Spa, protecting the women who work there from clients who won't take "no" for an answer.
Until he kills a man
Usually Doll avoids trouble by following his two basic rules: bark loudly and act first. But after a deadly fight with a customer, even he finds himself wildly out of his depth...
A Man Named Doll is both a hilarious introduction to an unforgettable character, and a high-speed joyride through the sensuous and violent streets of LA.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
At the outset of this exceptional series launch from Ames (You Were Never Really There), L.A. PI Hank "Happy" Doll (Happy is his real name; his parents "didn't think it was a joke") meets an old friend—Lou Shelton, an ex-cop who once saved Doll's life—who needs a huge favor: a kidney. He wants to buy one of Doll's. That evening, Doll, at his second job handling security for a massage parlor, shoots and kills a meth-head freak who goes after one of the masseuses, then attacks Doll with a knife. Later, Shelton appears at Doll's door, shot and near-dead, and hands Doll a diamond ("for my daughter"). The people who shot Shelton are now after Doll, who becomes enmeshed in an organ-harvesting scheme, in which Doll and his sometime girlfriend, Monica Santos, are meant to be victims. While the macabre seriousness of the crimes and the narrator's good-nature and sardonic humor might seem to be at odds, Ames makes it work through assured plotting, superb local color, and excellent prose. Readers will happily root for Doll, a good detective and a decent human, in this often funny and grisly outing.
