Descripción editorial
In this darkly humorous detective story, plagued by death on his conscience, Happy Doll has committed himself to a simple, spiritual life; that is, until a tragic and brutal murder forces his hand and sets him back on the bloody path of retribution and justice.
After narrowly escaping with his life at the hands of a murderous Hollywood pimp, detective Happy Doll, bullet-ridden but healing, has landed on a remote Mexican beach. In a humble shack and with his dog for company, Doll settles into a peaceful idyll of Buddhist study. But then trouble, as it always does, comes to paradise. Doll is the witness to a murder for which he is framed, and now, with an expired passport and the Mexican authorities on his tail, he must sneak across the border back to L.A. by any means necessary, with the goal of bringing the true murderer to justice.
But it's not just trouble that expels Doll from paradise! His dark past reaches for him, like a hand from the grave, old enemies want him dead, including the Jalisco Cartel, and Doll, a reluctant instrument of mayhem, yearns to end this cycle of violence and tip the karmic scales in his favor. But how can he do this without getting blood on his hands?
Karma Doll marks the third installment in a madcap, bloody, and impossibly fun series, bringing us back in the good company of Happy Doll: a beloved, introverted anti-hero who has taken more hits to the head than a linebacker, yet still always manages to come out on top.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Idiosyncratic PI Happy Doll returns for another violent, darkly funny adventure in Ames's outstanding sequel to The Wheel Doll. After killing members of the Jalisco cartel and fleeing Mexico with $60,000 and a gunshot wound, Doll finds a sketchy doctor to fix him up—and give him an entirely new face, in hopes it will help him escape the cartel's vengeance. Doll plans to recuperate, return to Los Angeles, sell his house, and retire to Mexico; his Buddhist learning has convinced him that killing people, even in self-defense, is not a path to enlightenment. Those convictions get put to the test, however, when Doll is set up to take the fall for the murder of a tourist in Mexico, then pursued by murderous bounty hunters who gradually come to realize he's on the run from the cartel. The need for self-preservation and desire for vengeance ultimately win out over Doll's quest for nirvana, moving him to knock heads before he returns to L.A. for a cleverly orchestrated, deeply satisfying denouement. Ames delivers lurid action, sterling prose, and a top-shelf cliff-hanger in one deliriously entertaining package. The next installment can't come soon enough.
