The Big Con: A Chuck Restic Mystery

by Adam Walker Phillips

Overview

The mystery novel visits the corporate world, bringing a fresh voice to the classic detective novel.

"A smooth noir vibe, and the additional wrinkle of an unreliable sidekick adds delicious tension to a plot that unfolds with a satisfying series of twists."
Kirkus Reviews

Chuck Restic, HR manager and part-time private investigator, has a problem: the consultant guru Julie St. Jean is the bane of his existence. Over his twenty-year HR career, he's been forced to partner with her on inane employee engagement programs whose only value has been to Julie's sizable bank account. When Julie is suddenly wanted for the murder of an associate, Chuck sees his chance to rid himself of her forever, until the corporate tables are turned on him and he must find the elusive figure or risk losing his job. The search uncovers a dark past of murder and stolen identity. And what begins as a search to save his corporate neck soon turns into one a lot more literal.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781945551260
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	08/14/2018
Series:	Chuck Restic Mysteries , #3
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Adam Walker Phillips is the author of the Chuck Restic Mystery Series, which follows a burnt-out HR man who moonlights as a private detective. Phillips is a 20-year corporate vet who has endured countless PowerPoint decks, offsite retreats and visioning sessions, and synergies and synergistically-minded cross-functional teams in order to bring this mystery series to life. His sardonic take on corporate life brings a fresh voice to the classic detective novel. Phillips lives with his wife and children in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Editorial Reviews

The subtly arch first-person narrative gives the third series installment from Phillips (The Perpetual Summer, 2018, etc.) a smooth noir vibe, and the additional wrinkle of an unreliable sidekick adds delicious tension to a plot that unfolds with a satisfying series of twists."
Kirkus Reviews

“[An] amiable third mystery featuring Chuck Restic … Phillips pokes wry fun at corporate life through his refreshingly humane investigator.”
Publishers Weekly

“…the main appeal here is watching Phillips satirize the HR world.”
Booklist

“If there is such a thing as corporate noir, Phillips nails it, and the literary flavor of these terrifically entertaining mysteries can be best described as Philip Marlowe meets Dilbert.”
— Booklist

From the Publisher

2018-05-15
Corporate coaching can be fatal.The wheels of corporate culture turn slowly. So it takes nearly a decade for HR executive and sometime sleuth Chuck Restic to phase out his Los Angeles company's involvement with the questionable consulting firm Power of One, a grandiose enterprise with a tenacious and charismatic leader but only two full-time employees. When Chuck visits the luxe home of Power's head, Julie St. Jean, he's surprised to find instead her business partner, Rebecca, who turns out, to his surprise, to be living with her. And that's not the biggest surprise he gets. Inside Julie's beautifully appointed "Dojo," he and Rebecca discover the corpse of Lois Hearns, a freelance Power contractor. Two LA police detectives question and release Chuck and Rebecca. When Chuck meets with Rebecca a few days later, however, the news that Julie's gone missing leads him to team up, however uneasily, with Rebecca, who's as anxious to find her partner as he is. Her abandoned Bentley has been found at Union Station. Chuck's questions cause Rebecca to realize how little she knows about Julie. The discovery of another body, that of a man named Fitch whom both Chuck and Rebecca claim not to know, leads to more mutual distrust even as it hints at a more dangerous killer. The pieces of the puzzle begin to come together with the revelation that Lois Hearns was a lawyer who brokered a prospective sale of Power of One. Even so, more victims will be claimed before Chuck can put it all together.The subtly arch first-person narrative gives the third series installment from Phillips (The Perpetual Summer, 2018, etc.) a smooth noir vibe, and the additional wrinkle of an unreliable sidekick adds delicious tension to a plot that unfolds with a satisfying series of twists.

Kirkus Reviews