Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise (USA 2015)

From the Publisher:
"The Key West locale was so real I felt my hair frizz." -- The Los Angeles Times
For friendly, easygoing furniture salesman Al Tuschman, frizzy hair is the least of his problems. Before he'd left New Jersey for a week's vacation in Key West, he hadn't an enemy in the world. But a series of puzzling assaults on his privacy, his sanity, and his life has turned his stay at the tasteful Paradise Hotel into a tropical hell. Maybe it's just the humidity. Maybe the Sambuca. Or maybe it's the nickname emblazoned on his license plate: Big Al.

For Big Al Marracotta, Mafia capo, a Florida getaway means outrunning a career in crime and rancid calamari. For Katy Sansone it's a bid for sunshine and self-respect--until a case of mistaken identity pits the confused woman against a bafflement of Als and more danger than any one of them had reason to pack for. Now, if Tuschman doesn't watch his back, somebody's going to be reporting the death of another salesman...

Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise. CreateSpace Independent Publ., ISBN: 9781508475651 (February, 2015), 242 p., $14.99, eBook $5.99.

Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise (USA 2007)

From the Publisher:
What's in a license plate? Plenty, if the tag reads BIG AL.
In this "wickedly inventive" (Los Angeles Times) and "darkly comic tale" (People), mild mannered Al Tuschman, a salesman from New Jersey, is mistaken for Al Marracotta, a major New York mobster with some very nasty enemies -- enemies who hire a pair of bumbling hitmen to turn the paradise of Big Al's Key West vacation into a living hell. When the wrong Big Al is targeted, cries of Why me? fill the tropical night -- and the gentle Tuschman must turn tougher than his namesake to save his own life.

Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise. iUniverse, ISBN: 0595469140 (September, 2007), 220 p., $14.95.

Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise (UK 2000)

From the Publisher:
Two big Al's arrive in Florida from New York.
One, Alan Tuschman, is a six foot five furniture salesman, lonely in love with a tiny dog as companion.
The other, Big Al Marracotta, is a five foot three mobster, taking his moll on vacation with a nervous rottweiller in tow.

You'd think that no one would confuse them. But this is a Larry Shames novel and with two bungling hitmen out to scare Big Al (the mobster) but assuming that Big Al (the salesman) is their target (he is, after all, big), you have the recipe for riotous antics, sharp observation and a very unlikely love story.

Laurence Shames is back with another hilarious novel of mistaken identity and tropical crime that proves that, while we all love the idea of taking a holiday, the truth is we often end up wishing we'd stayed at home.

Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise. Orion Books, ISBN: 0752836986 (August, 2000), 220 p., £5.99.

Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise (USA 2000)

From the Publisher:
Before mild-mannered furniture salesman Al Tuschman left New Jersey for a week in Key West, he hadn't an enemy in the world. But a series of puzzling assaults on his privacy, his sanity, and his life has turned his stay at the tasteful Paradise Hotel into Tropical Hell. Maybe it's the humidity. Maybe the Sambuca. Or maybe it's the nickname emblazoned on his license plate: Big Al.

For Big Al Marracotta, Mafia capo, a Florida getaway means outrunning a career in crime and rancid calamari. For Katy Sansone it's a bid for sunshine and self-respect -until a case of mistaken identity pits the confused woman against a bafflement of Als and more danger than any one of them had reason to pack for. Now, if Tuschman doesn't watch his back, somebody's going to be reporting the death of another salesman...

Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise. Fawcett Books, ISBN: 0345432185 (June, 2000), 256 p., $6.99.

Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise (UK 1999)

From the Publisher:
Big Al Marracotta, five foot not very much, heavy on the chutzpah, head of New York's Fulton Fish Market and low-level mafioso, is on his way to Key West for a little rest and relaxation. Little does he know that he's angered some people back in New York; people who think that a vacation might be the best time to exact revenge.

Meanwhile Alan 'Big Al' Tuschman, six foot and then some, tired and a little doubting, high school football star turned furniture salesman, has won his store's seasonal contest for the most dinette sets sold and is taking his prize: a free trip to Key West.

Both men have taken their pet dogs, both men are driving to Florida. Only one of them has a girlfriend, only one of them is the target for two of the Mob's most ruthless hitmen. The problem is, the girl friend thinks she's got the wrong man, and the hitman don't realise they've made the same mistake.

The stage is set for a hilarious novel of mistaken identity, tropical crime, misplaced love and decidedly past-its-best seafood.

Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise. Orion Books, ISBN: 0752810030 (November, 1999), 231 p., £9.99.

Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
Laurence Shames, whom the Chicago Tribune calls "one of our best crime fiction writers," is back. This time he brings us a hilarious novel of mistaken identity and tropical crime that proves that while we all love the idea of a vacation, the truth is we often end up wishing we'd stayed home.

For Alan Tuschman -- mild-mannered furniture salesman from New Jersey, a man without an enemy -- a vacation in Key West turns out to be not paradise but a hell of bizarre assaults on him, his property, and his sanity. Why? It might have something to do with the nickname emblazoned on his license plate.

For Big Al Marracotta -- Mafia capo and boss of New York's Fulton Fish Market -- vacation is the time when a long career of crime and rancid sea-food finally threatens to catch up with him.

And for lissome Katy Sansone, who is seeking no more than some sunshine and a little self-respect, Key West serves up a bafflement of Als, and way more danger than she'd packed for.

Rich in the loopy insights and surprising tenderness that have become Shames's hallmarks, Welcome to Paradise is his best novel yet.

Laurence Shames: Welcome to Paradise. Villard Books, ISBN: 0375502521 (April, 1999), 220 p., $22.95.