Wiprud, Stuffed

The best taxidermy/carny-freak/fake-monster
/bear-gallbladder-blackmarketing/magic-realist/
penguin-embalming/ecology-conscious/
North-Korea-baiting/Chinese-folklore-invoking
mystery novel ever. Also the only one, I would assume. A goofy Maltese Falcon rip, though presumably the first novel also mixes these elements well, they say. The actual mystery part is pretty good despite (because?) featuring a telekinetic carny freak named Flip who looks like a giant thumb (as Sydney Greenstreet's character, whose name escapes me right now--ah, Gutman) and can throw his voice. Zany website here.

It was one of those intellectually lost weekends where I read like 5 quickie mysteries on the elliptical and while Isaac slept. A couple more Hard Case books, including Grave Descend (great lines from Samuel Johnson as epigraphs, blah scuba-diving plot), Witness to Myself (an odd fit for the series, since it's pained and slow and psychological--B+ Highsmith, maybe), and The Last Match, which is as interesting for its backstory as its plot. A coolly amoraln and not particularly coherent plot-wise, romp through cigarette smuggling from North Africa, the Cote d'Azur, and Brazilian prisons, it's by the author of To Catch a Thief and is similarly knowing and suave--these are written for Cary Grant to play. It's particularly interesting to read in light of the author's daughter's note, which observes that a lot of this, including a con run on a stupid French billionaire induced to pay out for two boxes of sand to combat the Communist threat, was based on his real life. Makes you want to read a biography of someone so in command of such useful information.

Reviews on his site suggest people LOVED his travel books. Must track a few down.