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?
“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.”
“Parnell Hall succeeds in making Stanley Hastings one of a kind. Pleasantly reminiscent of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin.”
“The charm in Stanley Hastings lies in his chummy, loquacious, self-deprecating commentary as the narrator of his adventures.”
Parnell Hall is an Edgar, Shamus, and Lefty nominee, and is the author of the Stanley Hastings private eye novels and the Puzzle Lady crossword puzzle mysteries. An actor, screenwriter, and former private investigator, Hall lives in New York City.