Synopses & Reviews
Meet Pete Ingalls, a private investigator who sets up shop in New York City and commences looking for trouble. He's got all the tough-talking cynicism of a battle-weary gumshoe who's seen it all. Except he hasn't seen it all. In fact, he hasn't seen anything-and remembers even less. In Pete Ingalls's deeply confused mind, he walks the streets like some kind of Philip Marlowe clone. And everyone he meets thinks he's putting them on. Lucky for Ingalls, he's got a secretary-Stephanie Constantino, an aspiring actress in need of a day job. She's got a mouth that doesn't quit-with Ingalls, his clients, cops, or killers. But she has nice gams, and (unlike her boss) a real talent for solving crimes. It's Pete Ingalls' first case-and whodunit is only half the story.
Synopsis
From the contributor to legendary humor publications National Lampoon and Spy as well as The New York Times and The New Yorker, comes a debut novel that's drop dead funny... For Pete Ingalls, being a P.I. means wearing a fedora and solving crimes. So, far he's got the first one down. Not bad for a mild-mannered bookstore clerk who got hit in the head with a stack of hardcovers, only to wake up in a daze of outdated wisecracks and no recollection of his former life...
About the Author
Ellis Weiner was an editor of National Lampoon and a columnist for Spy. He has written humor pieces for The New Yorker, Paris Review, New York Times Magazine, Air & Space, and Modern Humorist. He is the author of The Joy of Worry (illustrated by Roz Chast), Decade of the Year, Letters From Cicely, and The Northern Exposure Cookbook, and is the co-author with Sydney Biddle Barrows of Mayflower Manners.