The Red Chameleon

by Erica Wright

Overview

As a private investigator, Kathleen Stone relies on her ability to blend into the background. Aided by her street-smart drag queen friend and the best wigmaker in New York City, she feels confident that her camouflage is up to snuff. But when a cheating spouse she’s been trailing ends up dead under suspicious circumstances, she fears that someone she angered in her past job—busting gangs and drug dealers as an undercover cop—has seen through her disguises. Now she must work with her former colleagues in the NYPD to solve the case before she’s the next victim.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605988313
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	05/15/2015
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Erica Wright is a senior editor at Guernica magazine. She is also the author of the poetry collection Instructions for Killing the Jackal (Black Lawrence Press, 2011), and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in BOMB,New Orleans Review, and Paste, among other publications. She attended NYU, where she won the Thomas Wolfe Prize, and received her MFA in Poetry from Columbia. She has taught creative writing at Marymount Manhattan College, Columbia, 92YTribeca, and NYU. Her time as an instructor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice sparked her interest in crime writing.

Editorial Reviews

Kathleen Stone is a private investigator well versed in the art of disguise. Her wigs, costumes and varied personae come in handy in the fight against a revenge-minded villain from her days in the NYPD.

O Magazine (featured in 'Killing It: The Summer's Best Thrillers')

The Red Chameleon is a fast, exciting read that mystery lovers will consume in huge gulps.

Carolyn Haines

The Red Chameleon introduces us to a thrilling new hardboiled world. Wright has created a rich and nuanced protagonist, as well as a gripping plot, and she writes in a style agile enough to veer into surprising pockets of emotion.

Justin Kramon

A complex tale filled with humor and sharply drawn characters, Erica Wright takes the reader on a thrilling ride where confronting evil can scare you into hiding or help you come out of the shadows.

Melodie Johnson Howe

Kathleen Stone is a private investigator well versed in the art of disguise. Her wigs, costumes and varied personae come in handy in the fight against a revenge-minded villain from her days in the NYPD.

O Magazine (featured in 'Killing It: The Summer's Best Thrillers')

Erica Wright's The Red Chameleon is a gift to devotees of classical private-eye novels as well as contemporary crime fiction.”

Jim Fusilli

A fast and funny private eye novel featuring Kathleen Stone, a kick-ass disguise artist who's a hoot under any name in any wig.

Parnell Hall

Erica Wright is such a wonderful writer, you'll be burning through the pages faster than a chameleon changes colors.

Chris Grabenstein

Stone is an engaging character with a disturbing background that adds another layer to the mayhem. Wright is a little darker and not quite as over the top as Janet Evanovich, but aficionados of humorous mysteries like the Stephanie Plum series and the Lucky O'Toole series by Deborah Coonts will want to add this to their reading lists.

Booklist

The Red Chameleon introduces a female private eye with Kinsey Millhone's bold-as-brass attitude, Jane Whitefield's genius at disguise and Stephanie Plum's enviable predicament of having two boyfriends. ”

Marilyn Stasio - The New York Times Book Review

02/24/2014
At the start of this riveting crime novel from poet Wright (Instructions for Killing the Jackal), PI Kat Stone, a former NYPD undercover detective, discovers the dead body of Stephen Kramer, the unfaithful husband she’s been tailing, in the men’s room of an Upper East Side bar. When Kat begins to look like the most likely suspect in Kramer’s shooting murder, Det. Ellis Dekker, who’s in charge of the case and a friend of Kat’s, vouches for her innocence and brings her unofficially into the investigation. After someone breaks into both her home and office, Kat begins to think that her former undercover activities might be catching up with her. Painful repressed memories start to surface that touch on the reason she resigned from the police force at age 25. A possible romance with Ellis adds to the intrigue, as does the appearance of a past lover. Readers will want to see more of the humorous, thoroughly engaging Kat. Agent: Penn Whaling, Ann Rittenberg Literary Agency. (June)

Publishers Weekly

There's something very appealing about Kathleen Stone, a quick-change artist who can slip into the persona of Katie, Kat, Kitty, Kathy, Kate, Katya—or her personal favorite, 15-year-old Keith—at the drop of a hat or, more likely, the switch of a wig.

The New York Times Book Review

2014-05-07
Her cover blown, an undercover cop reinvents herself as a whole company of private investigators.Kathleen Stone's days on the NYPD left her with two things: an unscratchable itch for fellow cop Ellis Dekker and the skill to fade into the background in a way the 6-foot-2, ice-blond Dekker never could. Once the Costa gang makes her, though, Kathleen's net worth as a cop plummets to near zero. So she swaps her badge for a dozen wigs. Now, in two seconds, she can become Katy, Kat, Kitty, Katya—whomever her client du jour needs to get the goods on a cheating spouse or light-fingered partner. In her favorite black dress and spiffy red bob, she becomes Kathy Seasons, charming hedge fund hawks at Hamilton's while tailing Stephen Kramer, suspected of infidelity by his wife, Gloria. When Kramer gets popped in the men's room, Kathy runs from the bar, ditches the wig and resourcefully turns into 15-year-old Keith to give the police the slip. As ash-blonde Kate, Kathleen stakes out the Kramers' apartment in time to see young stud Leif Nichols pay the widow Kramer a two-hour condolence call. The next day, she's back as flame-haired Kathy, alleged real estate broker drafted to find a condo for James Clifton, a Wall Street wolf who happened to be in Hamilton's the day Kramer got offed. Between Clifton and Gloria Kramer, Kathleen has her hands full. But she still has time for a quick tryst with Marco, her alternative to the cagey Dekker; a trip out to Suffolk County with her doe-eyed secretary, Meeza; and a couple more corpses.All those rapid-fire costume changes give a jumpy feel to Wright's fast-paced, quirky debut.

Kirkus Reviews