Caper (Stanley Hastings Series #17)

by Parnell Hall

Overview

The latest in the beloved Stanley Hastings series—the unlikeliest private eye in New York City, who doesn't even carry a gun.

Poor Stanley Hastings. After getting hired by a hitman and nearly getting shot, the put-upon PI needed some fun, so when a gorgeous damsel in distress walks through his office door, she seems just what the doctor ordered.Wrong again.

The fair maiden turns out to be a married mom who wants Stanley to find out why her teenage daughter is skipping school. Playing truant officer isn't exactly Stanley’s idea of fun, but at least it should be easy. Fat chance.

Stanley being Stanley, nothing goes right, nothing is as it seems, bodies start to pile up, and faster than you can say “fall guy,” guess who’s left holding the bag?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681770352
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	02/15/2012
Series:	Stanley Hastings Series , #17
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	362 KB

About the Author

 Parnell Hall is an Edgar, Shamus, and Lefty nominee, and is the author of the Stanley Hastings private eye novels, the Puzzle Lady crossword puzzle mystery series, and the Steve Winslow courtroom dramas. An actor, screenwriter, and former private investigator, Hall lives in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

Stanley is amusing as a lovable goof-sleuth, but the real fun lies in watching him try to talk himself out of a jam, whether it's in convoluted arguments with his wife…or debates with his friend Sergeant MacAullif, who shreds his points of logic the way a dog demolishes a slipper.
—The New York Times

Marilyn Stasio

Stanley Hastings, an endearingly inept New York City PI whose usual fare is interviewing prospective slip-and-fall clients for a negligence lawyer, gets involved in a multiple-murder case in his breezy 17th outing (after 2007’s Hitman) from Edgar-finalist Hall. Hastings accepts an assignment from Jennifer Weldon, an attractive woman who’s afraid that her 16-year-old daughter, Sharon, is working as a call girl. The investigator’s surveillance links Sharon to Congressman Jason Blake, who takes her to his Fifth Avenue apartment. Later, the pair hop a train to Philadelphia. When Hastings intervenes to rescue Sharon, he ends up an object of interest to the NYPD. The complications, including two corpses, pile up as Hastings makes one error in judgment after another. Hastings remains an appealing hero, even if the denouement doesn’t live up to the promise of the plot’s initial premise.Readers who can easily suspend disbelief will most enjoy this light whodunit. (July)

Publishers Weekly

The Stanley Hastings mysteries depend on subversively sly wordplay. In Caper, catching criminals is all very well, but in the violently verbal world he inhabits, Stanley would be happy just to win an argument.

Marilyn Stasio - New York Times Book Review

Parnell Hall succeeds in making Stanley Hastings one of a kind. . . . Pleasantly reminiscent of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.

Wall Street Journal

The charm in Stanley Hastings lies in his chummy, loquacious,
self-deprecating commentary as the narrator of his adventures.

The Washington Post Book World

Parnell Hall succeeds in making Stanley Hastings one of a kind. Pleasantly reminiscent of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.

Wall Street Journal

Mr. Hall slyly wins our respect for Stanley's intelligence and perseverance—qualities that give him the edge over his bolder and brawnier competition. And the last laugh too.

Marilyn Stasio - The New York Times Book Review

PI Stanley Hastings (Hitman) falls for a beautiful woman who wants him to keep her teenage daughter out of the clutches of an older man. Of course he believes her story and gets himself into a ton of trouble with the law. VERDICT Though Hall tries to make his protagonist look like a good guy with honorable intentions, Hastings will strike most readers as too stupid and self-absorbed to be much of a sleuth. [See Prepub Mystery, LJ 3/1/10.]

Library Journal