Kinky Friedman: Spanking Watson (USA 2011)

From the Publisher:
Kinky desperately wants to silence the thumping lesbian dance class pounding on his ceiling and his head. But a fake threatening note unexpectedly leads to a real-life murderer, and an inconveniently Watson-less Kinky has to stop the killer. Which of the Village Irregulars will win the Watson Prize? Which member of the lesbian dance class is next to die? Ratso is in pink tights and researching the "world's greatest farting musician", Steve Rambam is bugging a loft, Mike McGovern and Mick Brennan are pretending to be drunken British reporters... and it's only the beginning of the book.

About "Spanking Watson", from the Author's Introduction: "Spanking Watson begins with a threatening note received by Winnie Katz, the instructor of the lesbian dance class in the loft above the Kinkster. The Kinkster soon takes up the case, and tries to determine who indeed sent the threatening note. This, of course, is not terribly difficult for the Kinkster. He wrote it himself. The idea was to put the Village Irregulars through their paces in a simple, fabricated, whimsical case, to determine which of them had the skills and acumen and loyalty to become the best Doctor Watson. However, as Joseph Heller once remarked, 'Nothing succeeds as planned.' Soon enough, sure as life imitates art, the evil reality of the wicked world began to imitate my little game. Then the "face of dead Vaudeville" showed up and scared the crap out of everybody. I think Spanking Watson is a particularly funny book. Re-reading it provoked me to laugh for the first time in several hundred years.... "

Vandam Press is proud to be able to make this remarkable novel available again to Kinky's old friends and to those readers worldwide who are discovering Kinky Friedman for the first time.

Kinky Friedman: Spanking Watson. Vandam Press, ISBN: 9781937010126 (August, 2011), eBook, 584 KB (ca. 224 p.), $9.99.

Kinky Friedman: Spanking Watson (UK 1999)

From the Publisher:
Just as every dog must have its day, every Sherlock should have his Watson, and so in Spanking Watson the indomitable private dick Kinky Friedman embarks on a plan to determine which of his dependable 'Village Irregulars' will make the best sidekick. In order toassess the crew - McGovern, Ratso, Stephanie Dupont, Brennen and Rambam - Kinky assigns to each one the task of figuring out who wrote a death threat to Winnie Katz, the Kinkster's upstairs neighbour and dance teacher. Each one is resourceful in trying to ferret out the culprit - but what truly confounds Kinky is that in the middle of the investigation someone shows up who really does seem intent on killing Winnie. When all is finally resolved, the would-be killer isbrought to justice and Kinky has a new fireplace in his loft (and yes, the two things are connected).

Kinky Friedman: Spanking Watson. Faber and Faber, ISBN: 0571201679 (September, 1999), 216 p., £5.99.

Kinky Friedman: Spanking Watson (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
Just as every dog must have its day, so must every Sherlock have his Watson -- even if the Sherlock in question resides in a downtown loft with an ill tempered cat, a perpetually smiling puppet head, and ceiling badly in need of repair, all thanks in no small part to the often-less-than-light-on-its-feet lesbian dance class held daily in the loft above

And just as misery loves company, so does Kinky Friedman, the erstwhile Sherlock in question, love his tormentors from above -- enough so that when someone sends a threatening missive to the head lesbian dance-person, Winnie Katz, Kinky, in a mood of forgive-and-forget, sets out to find the perpetrator and to save the day.

Of course, just as nothing is ever as it seems, so is Kinky "Ace Private Big Dick" Friedman, not quite so altruistic as he may appear -- for, in fact, it was the Kinkster himself who wrote the threatening note to Ms. Katz, and then called upon each of his ubiquitous Village Irregulars (the mighty Mike McGovern, the mercurial Ratso Sloman, the marvelous Stephanie Dupont, and the masterful Steve Rambam) to solve the mystery, and in the process give Kinky a first-rate opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of each of his would-be Watsons.

But just as it's not where you start but where you finish, so does Kinky soon find himself caught up in a conundrum of Sherlockian proportions when the bogus death threat turns suddenly, chillingly real -- and an actual killer steps forward to carry out Kinky's impotent threat. And just as all things must end, so must this flap copy.

Kinky Friedman: Spanking Watson. A Novel. Simon & Schuster, ISBN: 0684850613 (September, 1999), 218 p., $23.00.