Stewart Hoag Mysteries – serie

HARLAN COBEN calls it "One of my all-time favorite series! ...David Handler is so good at writing one smart, funny page-turner after another that he makes it look easy." Fans of JANET EVANOVICH and CARL HIAASEN, get ready. If you haven't yet discovered wisecracking sleuth Stewart "Hoagy" Hoag and his faithful basset hound Lulu, you're in for a sharp, hilarious treat. Once upon a time, Hoagy had it all: a hugely successful debut novel, a gorgeous celebrity wife, the glamorous world of New York City at his feet. These days, he scrapes by as a celebrity ghostwriter. A celebrity ghostwriter who finds himself investigating murders more often than he'd like. And once upon a time, Richard Aintree was the most famous writer in America -- high school students across the country read his one and only novel, a modern classic on par with The Catcher in the Rye. But after his wife's death, Richard went into mourning...and then into hiding. No one has heard from him in twenty years. Until now. Richard Aintree - or someone pretending to be Richard Aintree - has at last reached out to his two estranged daughters.Monette is a lifestyle queen a la Martha Stewart whose empire is crumbling; and once upon a time, Reggie was the love of Hoagy's life. Both sisters have received mysterious typewritten letters from their father. Hoagy is already on the case, having been hired to ghostwrite a tell-all book about the troubled Aintree family. But no sooner does he set up shop in the pool house of Monette's Los Angeles mansion than murder strikes. With Lulu at his side - or more often cowering in his shadow - it's up to Hoagy to unravel the mystery, catch the killer, and pour himself that perfect single-malt Scotch...before it's too late.

Finalist for the Nero Award!“He's one of my very favorites: a novelist whose champagne-fizzy mysteries—as winning as the madcap adventures of Carl Hiaasen, as hilarious as Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series—tickle the brain, heart, and funny bone in equal measure.” –A.J. Finn, New York Times bestselling author of Woman in the WindowIn the next novel in David Handler’s Edgar award-winning series, Stewart “Hoagy” Hoag and his beloved basset hound, Lulu, investigate a murder in a fabled Connecticut summer playhouse.Hollywood ghostwriter Stewart “Hoagy” Hoag has chronicled the rise, fall, and triumphant return of many a celebrity. At last he’s enjoying his own, very welcome second act. After hitting a creative slump following the success of his debut novel, Hoagy has found inspiration again. Ensconced with his faithful but cowardly basset hound, Lulu, on a Connecticut farm belonging to his ex-wife, Oscar-winning actress Merilee Nash, he’s busy working on a new novel. He’s even holding out hope that he and Merilee might get together again. Life is simple and fulfilling—which of course means it’s time for complications to set in….When the police call to ask if he knows the whereabouts of a man named R.J. Romero, Hoagy learns of a dark secret from his ex-wife’s past. It’s already a stressful time for Merilee, who’s directing a gala benefit production of Private Lives to rescue the famed but dilapidated Sherbourne Playhouse, where the likes of Katherine Hepburn, Marlon Brando and Merilee herself made their professional stage debuts. Her reputation, as well as the playhouse’s future, is at stake. The cast features three of Merilee’s equally famous Oscar-winning classmates from the Yale School of Drama. But it turns out that there’s more linking them to each other—and to their fellow Yale alum, R.J.—than their alma mater. When one of the cast is found murdered, it will take Hoagy’s sleuthing skills and Lulu’s infallible nose to sniff out the truth…before someone else faces the final curtain call.

In this case from early in Stewart Hoag's career, the newly successful writer revisits his hometown to investigate the murder of a beloved librarian.