The Boy Who Never Grew Up
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- €7.99
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- €7.99
Publisher Description
A Hollywood ghostwriter and his basset hound explore the deadly world of high-stakes divorce in this hilarious mystery from an Edgar Award–winning author.
Matthew Wax is an overgrown kid with a taste for sweets, go-kart racing, and wholesome family comedy. He’s also the most successful director in Hollywood, a golden boy whose films are toothache sweet and spit-shine clean. But when his wife, leading lady Pennyroyal Brim, tires of life in a G-rated wonderland, she brings in the most ruthless lawyer on the West Coast: the notorious Abel Zorch. To win the divorce settlement, Zorch drags Wax through the mud, accusing him of perversion, misogyny, and abuse. So when Pennyroyal announces a tell-all memoir, Wax has only one choice: to call in Stewart “Hoagy” Hoag, ghostwriter to the stars.
Working with Wax, Hoagy and his basset hound, Lulu, get closer to the boy wonder than anyone else ever has. But when Zorch turns up dead, Wax is the prime suspect—followed closely by every spurned husband in Beverly Hills—and to clear their client’s name, the amateur sleuth and his canine companion will have to leave La-La Land behind and cross over to the dark side of Los Angeles.
From Edgar Award–winning author David Handler, The Boy Who Never Grew Up is a razor-sharp entry in the beloved Stewart Hoag Mysteries, called an “all-time favorite series” by Harlan Coben. The funniest sleuth around, Hoagy knows that quick wit can overcome any obstacle—even murder.
The Boy Who Never Grew Up is the 5th book in the Stewart Hoag Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Edgar-winning Handler's sixth Stewart ``Hoagy'' Hoag mystery will surely captivate admirers of the celebrity ghostwriter/sleuth, but it is bound to annoy some readers. One has to love a smart aleck to join the fan club here, because Hoagy never gives a straight response when a wisecrack will do--which seems to be most of the time. Leaving New York City, he heads west to ghostwrite a memoir for a Hollywood wunderkind, director Matthew Wax, and finds himself smack in the middle of a messy, money-grubbing, tabloid-banner divorce war between his brilliantly naif subject and his greedy, street-smart wife, the actress Pennyroyal Brim. At stake is Wax's studio, Bedford Falls (yes, named after the town in It's a Wonderful Life ), which Pennyroyal intends to claim and then sell to Panorama City for a cool $150 million. Rounding out the well-drawn cast in a plot that proceeds from mean to nasty to murderous are Abel Zorch, Pennyroyal's unscrupulous attorney; Johnny Forget, former child star and Wax protege; Cassandra Dee, ghostwriter for Pennyroyal Brim; and Norbert Schlom, president of Panorama City. On the way to a brisk finale, Handler sharply skewers and spoofs La-La Land until Hoagy can at last quip his way back home again. Author tour.
