Kinky Friedman: Armadillos & Old Lace (UK 1996)

From the Publisher:
A story featuring the foul-mouthed Kinky Friedman, ace private eye. Little old ladies are dropping dead at an alarming rate in the vicinity of the family's ranch/summer camp in Texas, and Kinky is asked to investigate. A faded photograph of ten pretty girls is just the clue he needs.

Kinky Friedman: Armadillos & Old Lace. Faber & Faber, ISBN: 0571174620 (May, 1996), 162 p., £5.99.

Kinky Friedman: Armadillos & Old Lace (USA 1995)

From the Publisher:
Kinky Friedman is living proof that you can be a Texan, a New Yorker, a Jewish country-and-western singer, and an amateur detective all at the same time. But when New York City gets a little too full of murder and mayhem to suit him, Kinky heads for the fresh air of the Lone Star State—filtered, of course, through his ever-present Cigar. But something is rotten in the state of Texas, too, and Kerrville’s justice of the Peace asks the Kinkster for his help. Four old ladies have died in the past few months, and though there's no apparent link, Judge Pat Knox is sure there’s a connection. Before this case ends, Kinky will meet up with a survivalist, a swarm of angry bees, a swarm of eight-year-old buckaroos at his father’s ranch and summer camp, and, if he’s not careful, he may just meet up with his own untimely end.

Kinky Friedman: Armadillos & Old Lace. Bantam Books, ISBN: 0553574477 (July, 1995), 243 p., $5.50.

Kinky Friedman: Armadillos & Old Lace (UK 1995)

From the Publisher:
Kinky Friedman - singer and sleuth extraordinaire -- decides it's time to take a break from big-city murder and mayhem by transporting himself to Texas to play with his pet armadillo and to blow the city soot from his brain.

The Kinkster has scarcely arrived in the Lone Star state before his friend, Judge Knox, turns up at his ranch: "I want to talk to you," said Judge Knox in deeply conspiratorial tones, "about four little old ladies."
"Four little old ladies?" I said. "Do they want me to join them in a quilting bee?"
"No," said the judge. "They're dead."

A faded photograph is just the clue that Kinky needs to unravel a devious scheme of revenge for personal wrongs and social snubs. Armadillos & Old Lace is Kinky Friedman in top form, mixing his irresistible irreverence with a great mystery.

Kinky Friedman: Armadillos & Old Lace. Faber & Faber, ISBN: 0571174612 (May, 1995), 162 p., £8.99.

Kinky Friedman: Armadillos & Old Lace (USA 1994)

From the Publisher:
The Kinkster is back and in top supersleuth form. In Armadillos & Old Lace, the hip, witty, cosmically cryptic poet returns to once again ponder the imponderables and disentangle a mystery or two, and this time he's temporarily forsaking the mean streets of Manhattan for his old Texas stomping grounds.

When Kinky Friedman decides it's time to take a break from big-city murder and mayhem, he transports himself and his cat to Texas to get back to his roots, to commune with his dad, to play with his pet armadillo, and to blow the city soot from his fevered brain. Kinky arrives at his family's combination ranch/summer camp for boys and girls to find urgent messages from Pat Knox, the local justice of the peace (who got that job by beating Kinky in what clearly had to have been a rigged election).

It seems Her Honor is a tad concerned that little old ladies in the area are dropping dead at an alarming rate. Fearing something foul is afoot, she persuades Kinky to undertake some sleuthing. Undaunted by the thought of running up against the toughest lady sheriff in Texas and only a little perturbed by a mass of swarming bees, the Kinkster takes off in his talking car to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Several bunches of yellow roses and a faded photograph taken many years ago of ten pretty girls dressed in white and ready for the cotillion are just the clues Kinky needs to finally unravel a devious scheme of revenge for personal wrongs and social snobbery.

A colorful Texas story of the cosmic variety, Armadillos & Old Lace is Kinky Friedman at his dead-level best, mixing his irresistible irreverence with a really great mystery.

Kinky Friedman: Armadillos & Old Lace. A Novel. Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 067186923X (September, 1994), 236 p., $21.00.