While drowning in the desert: a Neal Carey mystery

You gotta love vaudeville, right? As annoying as those unbelievably corny jokes and rheumy-eyed comedians might be, there's something endearing about them. Well, Winslow's latest mystery is a lot like vaudeville, corny but endearing and guaranteed to provoke a laugh. Neal Carey "does favors" for an organization called Friends of the Family (read, Mob). His latest mission sounds simple: pick up octogenarian Natty Silver in Vegas and return him to his Palm Springs condo. But Natty is determined not to go home. It seems he has witnessed an arson and knows the arsonist is waiting for him. So Natty pulls every shenanigan imaginable to stay in Vegas, from shacking up with a luscious lounge singer to stealing Neal's car and disappearing into the desert. Neal is ready to let Natty fend for himself, but the old vaudevillian has a few last tricks up his sleeve. A thoroughly enjoyable comic mystery. --Emily Melton

In yet another slapstick mystery, Neal Carey (A Long Walk Up the Waterslide, 1995) is driving across the Nevada desert with the aging, legendary comedian Natty Silver yakking his vaudeville shtick nonstop. Neal is taking Natty home to California from Vegas, but a couple of no-goodniks are after Natty, and the old man won't say why. Chaperoning Natty is hard‘he won't shut up, except when he tries to get away and get laid. The bad guys are Heinz, a German money-launderer, and his Lebanese sidekick, Sami, who's dumber than wood. Meanwhile, Neal's girl, Karen, is in a raging hurry for marriage and motherhood; and Hope White (billed as "The Great Hope White"), a Vegas performer no longer as young as she once was, is rekindling an old torch for Natty. The principal players take turns hogging the narrative, and soon everyone converges for the big dramatic showdown, with the damsels predictably imperiled by Heinz. Okay. Maybe it's not that dramatic. Winslow's style isn't flashy, and his notion of suspense is downright laughable. Yet he has a way with crisp dialogue (or, in Natty's case, monologue), and the laughs keep coming. Neal isn't a tough guy, but he's pretty lucky. Lucky enough to find water in the sand and ferry the irascible Natty, who claims to have taught a young Lou Costello "Who's on First," to safety. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

A scant two months away from marriage to Karen Hawley, with an M.A. and an assistantship at Columbia to follow, Neal Carey's roused from his Nevada nirvana by another phone call from Joe Graham, his p.i. mentor at Friends of the Family (A Long Walk Up the Water Slide, 1994, etc.). It's a little errand, says Joe: Just pick up addled Nathan Silverstein in Vegas and squire him back home to Palm Springs. But Graham doesn't tell Neal that Silverstein is really aging vaudevillian Natty Silver, whose nonstop patter will drive Neal crazy, and he doesn't tell him that Natty hotfooted it out of Palm Springs after witnessing an arson fire whose perps are now hot on his trail. Neal grabs Natty but loses him; the perps catch up with Neal and Natty; Karen and Natty's own ladyfriend get into the act; so do the Friends. Finis. A pleasantly overextended borscht belt two-liner.

In yet another slapstick mystery, Neal Carey (A Long Walk Up the Waterslide, 1995) is driving across the Nevada desert with the aging, legendary comedian Natty Silver yakking his vaudeville shtick nonstop. Neal is taking Natty home to California from Vegas, but a couple of no-goodniks are after Natty, and the old man won't say why. Chaperoning Natty is hard?he won't shut up, except when he tries to get away and get laid. The bad guys are Heinz, a German money-launderer, and his Lebanese sidekick, Sami, who's dumber than wood. Meanwhile, Neal's girl, Karen, is in a raging hurry for marriage and motherhood; and Hope White (billed as "The Great Hope White"), a Vegas performer no longer as young as she once was, is rekindling an old torch for Natty. The principal players take turns hogging the narrative, and soon everyone converges for the big dramatic showdown, with the damsels predictably imperiled by Heinz. Okay. Maybe it's not that dramatic. Winslow's style isn't flashy, and his notion of suspense is downright laughable. Yet he has a way with crisp dialogue (or, in Natty's case, monologue), and the laughs keep coming. Neal isn't a tough guy, but he's pretty lucky. Lucky enough to find water in the sand and ferry the irascible Natty, who claims to have taught a young Lou Costello "Who's on First," to safety. (June) Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information.