True-Life Adventure (Paul Mcdonald Mystery #1) (The Paul

True-Life Adventure (Paul Mcdonald Mystery #1) (The Paul Mcdonald Series)

â€œA Prize Plot.â€ -San Francisco Examiner
â€œA bright, light, cleverly written tale.â€ -Cincinnati Post
HE KNOWS TOO MUCHâ€”BUT HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE KNOWSâ€¦
Things were going lousy for ex-reporter Paul Mcdonald: No money, no girl friend, no bright new career as a mystery novelist â€¦ and then along came private investigator Jack Birnbaum with an offer: heâ€™d detect, and Paul would write the client reports. It wasnâ€™t much, but it would keep Spot the cat in Kitty Queen tidbits.

But then somebody poisoned Jack in Paulâ€™s own living room. A day that begins with a body in your house really ought to get better, but next comes burglary and after that, assault-by-cop. And Paulâ€™s got a feeling thatâ€™s just the beginning. There must have been something someone didn't want him to know in one of those client reports. But what?

The wise-cracking, funny, but slightly depressed ex-journalist better become an ace private investigator in about two secondsâ€”or end up like his detective mentor.

Birnbaum's last report concerned a kidnapped child, so Paul begins there. The trail leads him to the laboratory of a Nobel laureate geneticist, and then to San Francisco City Hall, where an extremely nasty surprise awaits. But thereâ€™s an upsideâ€”lovely witness Sardis Kincannon. Nothing like falling in love while youâ€™re running for your life!

The FIRST Paul Mcdonald P.I. mystery by the Edgar-winning author of the Skip Langdon series

â€œOne more blithe San Fran outing with a likeable journalist-sleuth by the name of Paul Mcdonald â€¦ Smith improves with each story and this is her best to date.â€ -Kirkus Reviews

The San Francisco Bay Area shines here, as does the author's wit and humor.

Fans of CASTLE, MURDER SHE WROTE, even ELLERY QUEEN will enjoy this fast-paced and funny take on the mystery-writer-as-detective. As will people who like their male sleuths wry, witty, and a little on the soft-boiled sideâ€”fans of Parnell Hallâ€™s Stanley Hastings, say, Tony Dunbarâ€™s Tubby Dubonnet, Gregory Mcdonaldâ€™s Fletch (this Mcdonald, it's worth noting, is Paulâ€™s personal hero), Lawrence Blockâ€™s Bernie Rhodenbarr, and especially Rex Stoutâ€™s Archie Goodwin. Female sleuths with a sense of humor remind us of him tooâ€”for instance, Criminal Mindsâ€™ Penelope Garcia and the immortal Amelia Peabody (of whom heâ€™d be terrified if they ever met).

Want to sample the goods?

â€œThat stuffâ€™ll kill you.â€
â€œWhat? Your coffee?â€ Jack was just doctoring his second cup.
â€œNo. All that sweetener. Youâ€™re poisoning yourself.â€
â€œWeâ€™ve all gotta go sometime.â€
Jack went right about then. His eyes rolled back and he let go of the cup. Coffee sloshed all over my rug. His big body fell forward in the chair.
***
These were the facts: I was thirty-eight. Iâ€™d spent fifteen years on one major metropolitan daily or another. Iâ€™d written six unpublished detective novels. Unpublished in spite of my name.
John D. MacDonald did it daily. Ross Macdonald did it deeper. Gregory Mcdonald did it with dash.
Wrote thrillers and got them published.
But not Paul Mcdonald.
I just wrote them, supporting my habit with clients like Jack.
I had about two hundred bucks to last me the rest of my life.
My only client was dead.
The market for mysteries was terrible.
I didnâ€™t get out enough.
The only thing Iâ€™d ever done successfully was write newspaper stories.
And I was sitting on a great story.

A story he can sell, if he can catch the murderer before the murderer catches him.
Country USA
Manufacturer booksBnimble Mysteries Thrillers and Suspense
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2013-11-16
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	booksBnimble Mysteries Thrillers and Suspense
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2013-11-16
Format	Kindle eBook

True-Life Adventure (Paul Mcdonald Mystery #1) (The Paul Mcdonald Series)

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