Wagstaff And Meatballs

by Jim Berkin

Overview

All secret agents should be like Groucho Marx.
Meet "Professor Wagstaff" - freelance intelligence operative - expert on everything and all around wisecracking nudnik. He makes random happenings into true Jungian synchronicities, matches them up to the endless storehouse of pop culture narratives in his overloaded brain... songs, movies, television, art... and follows those narratives wherever they lead... usually to trouble.
On his way back to Providence for a college reunion weekend, Wagstaff saves the life of an art professor who turns out to be the son of a longtime Rhode Island Mafia chief. From there, our mix of Sherlock, Bond and Groucho concocts a trail through feuding mob factions, old college friends and rivals, a long lost Caravaggio masterpiece, and the ecstasies of Rhode Island cuisine. As bodies begin to pile up, Wagstaff realizes the stakes are higher than who will run the local bookmaking rackets, and the flirtations from the Don's daughter might literally be playing with fire... which means, once again, it's time for another edition of "You Bet Your Life!"

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781544200569
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	04/03/2017
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Jim Berkin, the alter-ego of Professor Wagstaff, originally hails from Rhode Island and now lives in Southern California. In between far too many years of drinking, gambling & cat petting, he's taught film & television, along with more history and pop culture courses than there's room to list here. This is the second novel in the Professor Wagstaff mystery series. Ongoing updates from the Berkin/Wagstaff perspective can be followed at

www.jimberkin.com

And stop following him or he'll have you arrested.

Editorial Reviews

2017-05-22
Berkin's (Cut to Wagstaff, 2012) second Wagstaff adventure pits his protagonist against the Rhode Island mob. En route to a reunion at Brown University, Wagstaff stops in Las Vegas, where he thwarts a carjacking and saves Alfie Palumbo's life. Alfie is the son of a Mafia chief from Rhode Island, but he's no hoodlum; he's an upstanding art historian who happens to have a disreputable dad. Nor is Wagstaff an ordinary good Samaritan; he freelances as an investigator for a mysterious, "off-the-books" intelligence agency. Key to his success is his faith in "Jungian synchronicities"; in other words, he doesn't believe in coincidence. Instead, he filters occurrences through his encyclopedic knowledge of film. For example, if something reminds him of a movie, he overlays that film's plot on what's actually taking place—then his brain fizzes into action, making unusual connections. When he realizes that Alfie is one of the same Palumbos who ran his own hometown, he decides to find out who's behind the attempted murder. The Palumbo family is thrilled by this, and they provide him with a bodyguard and other assistance—but can they be trusted? Central to the mystery are a lost Caravaggio painting that Alfie uncovered in an Italian monastery and an art heist from the 1980s. But when a local man winds up dead in a dumpster, Wagstaff worries that he could be next. High-spirited, high-stakes mayhem fills every page; there are nonstop scrapes and chases, wise-guy jokes, and references to everything from The Gong Show to Star Trek, The Godfather, and even the 1990 film The Freshman. Berkin's story is preposterous and his leading man improbable—but the novel's endearing goofiness makes this a winning combination. Film buffs will love spotting the various movie references (and Wagstaff's disquisition on Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window), while action fans will find plenty here to raise their heart rates. Readers shouldn't read this book while hungry, though, as Wagstaff's most intense nostalgia is for Rhode Island cuisine—all described in detail that will leave readers drooling. Wacky, worldly Wagstaff is a winner.

Kirkus Reviews